Visually configurable privacy enforcement

A system comprising:

• at least one hardware processor configured to:
• present via a graphical user interface of an application installed on a user device at least one element associated with a source of information, the at least one element activatable by the user to specify the source of information as a source of information to be logged;
• receive from the user via the graphical user interface, an activation of the at least one element, the activation specifying that the source of information is to be logged;
• in response to receiving the activation of the at least one element, instrument the application using a configuration file and based on an operating system of the user device, the instrumentation configured to capture and log information received from the specified source of information, wherein the instrumentation is performed based on a setting for the instrumentation in the configuration file being set to active in response to receiving the activation of the at least one element, the instrumentation is configurable based on changes to the configuration file, and wherein to instrument the application based on the operating system of the user device, the at least one hardware processor is further configured to perform one of:
• modify compiled bytecode of the application to inject a custom class loader into the application, wherein the custom class loader loads specialized versions of classes of an application program interface (API) of the operating system instead of an original version of the classes in response to calls made by the application to the classes of the API, and the specialized version includes additional code for tracking and logging the source of information specified by the activation;
• and
• modify, in a dispatch table, mappings between selectors and underlying functions in classes of the API to redirect method calls from the application to method calls that are specified for tracking and logging the source of information specified by the activation;
• capture information received by the application from the specified source using the instrumentation;
• log the captured information in memory;
• capture data that is output by the application;
• compare the captured data to the logged information, wherein to compare the captured data, the at least one hardware processor is further configured to:
• determine a similarity between the captured data and the logged information based on a string-similarity analysis;
• determine that the similarity is above a pre-determined threshold value;
• in response to the similarity being greater than the pre-determined threshold value, determine based on the comparison that a leak of the information has occurred;
• and
• in response to determining that a leak of the information has occurred, performing at least one corrective action, wherein the at least one corrective action comprises preventing the captured data from exiting the application, reformatting the captured data, encrypting the captured data, and sending a notification to a developer of the application of the leak of the information.

An apparatus comprising:

• a display;
• at least one input device;
• at least one hardware processor associated with the at least one input device and the display, the at least one hardware processor configured to:
• present via the display, a graphical user interface of an application installed on the apparatus;
• present via the graphical user interface at least one element associated with a source of information, the at least one element activatable by the user via the input device to specify the source of information as a source of information to be logged;
• receive from the user via the at least one input device, an activation of the at least one element, the activation specifying that the source of information is to be logged;
• in response to receiving the activation of the at least one element, instrument the application using a configuration file and based on an operating system of the user device, the instrumentation configured to capture and log information received from the specified source of information, wherein the instrumentation is performed based on a setting for the instrumentation in the configuration file being set to active in response to receiving the activation of the at least one element, the instrumentation is configurable based on changes to the configuration file, and wherein to instrument the application based on the operating system of the user device, the at least one hardware processor is further configured to perform one of:
• modify compiled bytecode of the application to inject a custom class loader into the application, wherein the custom class loader loads specialized versions of classes of an application program interface (API) of the operating system instead of an original version of the classes in response to calls made by the application to the classes of the API, and the specialized version includes additional code for tracking and logging the source of information specified by the activation;
• and
• modify, in a dispatch table, mappings between selectors and underlying functions in classes of the API to redirect method calls from the application to method calls that are specified for tracking and logging the source of information specified by the activation;
• capture information received by the application from the specified source using the instrumentation;
• log the captured information in memory;
• capture data that is output by the application;
• compare the captured data to the logged information, wherein to compare the captured data, the at least one hardware processor is further configured to:
• determine a similarity between the captured data and the logged information based on a string-similarity analysis;
• determine that the similarity is above a pre-determined threshold value;
• in response to the similarity being greater than the pre-determined threshold value, determine based on the comparison that a leak of the information has occurred;
• and
• in response to determining that a leak of the information has occurred, performing at least one corrective action, wherein the at least one corrective action comprises preventing the captured data from exiting the application, reformatting the captured data, encrypting the captured data, and sending a notification to a developer of the application of the leak of the information.