Research Objective
The main objective of this study is to assess mental health through the smartphone.
Which type of data will be collected?
Information About Your Phone
1. Manufacturer name (e.g., Samsung).
2. Model number (e.g., SM-G570Y).
3. API level (e.g., 26).
4. Android version (e.g., 8.0.0).
5. Media Access Control (MAC) address. We will store the encrypted MAC address of your smartphone. This means we will never see your actual MAC address. The encrypted MAC address will be used for keeping records of repeated data donation (if you donate data in the future also) and also ensure that you have the scope to delete your data (If you want to delete your data in the future. Details are given below.).
6. The time zone (e.g., Bangladesh Standard Time, Asia/Dhaka) where your phone is running.
Subjective Data
In addition to demographic information (e.g. age, education), we will collect data about your mental health, based on well-established scales [1, 2].
App Usage Data
The following data will be collected for each app which has been used within the past 7 days. We will collect the data for those apps also which have been used within the past 7 days but uninstalled later. We will also collect the time required to retrieve the app usage data from your phone.
Note: These data can be collected for 8 days also, depending on your Smartphone configuration.
Timestamp when you have moved the app to the foreground and background.
Name of the app.
The package name of the app.
Type of the app ( System or Third-party app). i.e. Settings is a system app.
We will collect the following data for the past 14 days, 28 days, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months and 1 year. These data will be collected for each app that has been used within the specified time ranges.
Note: We will collect data for those apps also which have been used within the specified time ranges but uninstalled later.
Total usage duration of an app. i.e. Total usage duration of Facebook within the past 1 year
Timestamp while installing the app
Name of the app
The package name of the app
Timestamp while you have used the app last time.
Which type of permissions do we need to collect your data?
We need your permission to access your app usage data.
How will we ensure the security of your data?
Security and privacy for your data will get the most importance. Therefore, we will try our best to ensure that. We will take the following steps:
We are using a secure database. It implements authentication and declarative security rules for security.
The account which will be used to access your data has been secured by adding 2-Step Verification, Sign in with a phone, and some other steps.
We do not collect and do not know any personally identifiable information such as your name, email, phone, etc.
Hence, you may feel free to permit us to retrieve your data.
Will it be possible to remove your data in the future, if you want?
If you wish, you will be able to remove your data anytime you want (please, send an email to msg2sabbir@gmail.com).
What will we do using your data?
We will use your data only for research purposes and also develop a system that may help to improve the mental health of the people.
References:
[1] Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). The PHQ-9. In Journal of General Internal Medicine (Vol. 16, Issue 9, pp. 606–613). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x
[2] Ahmed, O. (2019). Psychometric Assessment of the Bangla UCLA Loneliness Scale - version 3. Bangladesh Journal of Psychology, 22, 35-53.