Semiautomatic Derivation and Use of Personal Privacy Policies in E-Business

Abstract

The growth of the Internet has been accompanied by the growth of Internet e-business services (e.g., electronic bookseller services, electronic stock-transaction services). This proliferation of e-business services has in turn fueled the need to protect the personal privacy of e-business users or consumers. We advocate a privacy policy approach to protecting personal privacy. However, it is evident that the specification of a personal privacy policy must be as easy as possible for the consumer. In this paper, we define the content of personal privacy policies using privacy principles that have been enacted into legislation. We then present two semiautomated approaches for the derivation of personal privacy policies. The first approach makes use of common privacy rules obtained through community consensus. This consensus can be obtained from research and/or surveys. The second approach makes use of existing privacy policies in a peer-to-peer community. We conclude the paper by explaining how personal privacy policies can be applied in e-business to protect consumer privacy.