在Google Play Store中检测和表征移动应用蜕变
Detecting and Characterising Mobile App Metamorphosis in Google Play Store
AI总结：
本文提出一种多模态搜索方法，用于识别经历蜕变的应用程序，并分析Google Play Store的两个五年跨度快照，揭示蜕变场景及潜在安全隐私风险。
摘要：
应用市场已成为开发者高度竞争和动态的环境。虽然传统应用生命周期涉及逐步更新以改进功能和解决问题，但一些应用通过使用案例或市场定位的重大转变偏离这一规范。我们定义这种此前未研究的现象为'应用蜕变'。本文提出了一种新颖且高效的多模态搜索方法，用于识别经历蜕变的应用程序，并将其应用于分析两个相隔五年的Google Play Store快照。我们的方法揭示了多种蜕变场景，包括重生、重新品牌、重新用途等，从而实现了全面表征。尽管这些转变可能在我们定义的成功评分指标下被视作成功（例如，重新品牌的应用性能比平均顶级应用高出约11.3%），但我们揭示了其中隐藏的安全和隐私风险，可能影响甚至技术娴熟的终端用户。
英文摘要：
App markets have evolved into highly competitive and dynamic environments for developers. While the traditional app life cycle involves incremental updates for feature enhancements and issue resolution, some apps deviate from this norm by undergoing significant transformations in their use cases or market positioning. We define this previously unstudied phenomenon as 'app metamorphosis'. In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient multi-modal search methodology to identify apps undergoing metamorphosis and apply it to analyse two snapshots of the Google Play Store taken five years apart. Our methodology uncovers various metamorphosis scenarios, including re-births, re-branding, re-purposing, and others, enabling comprehensive characterisation. Although these transformations may register as successful for app developers based on our defined success score metric (e.g., re-branded apps performing approximately 11.3% better than an average top app), we shed light on the concealed security and privacy risks that lurk within, potentially impacting even tech-savvy end-users.
机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来，可能存在错误，请以论文正文为准。
