  Ubiquitous technologies such as mobile software applications (mobile apps)
have a tremendous influence on the evolution of the social, cultural, economic,
and political facets of life in society. Mobile apps fulfil many practical
purposes for users including entertainment, transportation, financial
management, etc. Given the ubiquity of mobile apps in the lives of individuals
and the consequent effect of these technologies on society, it is essential to
consider the relationship between human values and the development and
deployment of mobile apps. The many negative consequences of violating human
values such as privacy, fairness or social justice by technology have been
documented in recent times. If we can detect these violations in a timely
manner, developers can look to better address them. To understand the violation
of human values in a range of common mobile apps, we analysed 22,119 app
reviews from Google Play Store using natural language processing techniques. We
base our values violation detection approach on a widely accepted model of
human values; the Schwartz theory of basic human values. The results of our
analysis show that 26.5% of the reviews contained text indicating user
perceived violations of human values. We found that benevolence and
self-direction were the most violated value categories, and conformity and
tradition were the least violated categories. Our results also highlight the
need for a proactive approach to the alignment of values amongst stakeholders
and the use of app reviews as a valuable additional source for mining values
requirements.
