Privacy Enhancing Research Articles

A cross-layer framework for privacy enhancement in RFID systems

In this paper, we introduce a cross-layer framework for enhancing privacy in RFID systems. The framework relies on mechanisms in the physical (PHY) layer, as well as the medium access control (MAC) layer, to provide flexible protection over the unique identifiers of low-cost RFID tags. Such a framework prevents adversaries and malicious parties from tracking RFID tags through the monitoring of their unique identifiers. More specifically, our framework relies on masking of the identifier at the PHY layer, whereby bit-collisions are induced between the backscattered tag identifier and a protective mask, such that a legitimate reader can be allowed to recover the tag identifier but an illegitimate party would not be able to do so. To strengthen the level of protection provided by the bit-collision masking method, we present the randomized bit encoding scheme that is used in our framework. In addition, we also incorporate mechanisms in the MAC layer, and make use of cross-layer interactions between the MAC and the PHY layers to provide flexible privacy protection. This allows tags that do not require privacy protection to be read conveniently while allowing tags that need to be protected to stay protected.

Identity management of e-ID, privacy and security in Europe. A human rights view

With privacy enhancing identity management, end users are given better ways for managing their identities for specific contexts. One could easily argue that the need to implement identity management systems that are privacy enhancing follows from the EU data protection regulation. One of the challenges while developing privacy enhancing identity management is getting governments to become genuinely interested, both in their capacity of data processing organisation and legislator or policy maker. Another challenge, this time for the private sector, is to find the right balance between data protection perfection and simplicity or users' convenience, while developing privacy enhancing identity management systems. After a brief discussion of these challenges we discuss the growing human rights recognition of the value of digital identity and its management. In particular, the German constitutional court seems to pave the way for a basic right to have digital identity protected and secured.

Privacy in video surveilled spaces

We present a system prototype for self-determination and privacy enhancement in video surveilled areas by integrating computer vision and cryptographic techniques into networked building automation...

Implementing Trusted Terminals with a and SITDRM

The SITDRM Enterprise system [N. Sheppard, R. Safavi-Naini “Protecting Privacy with the MPEG-21 IPMP Framework”. International Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2006, pp. 152–171] protects private customer data by allowing customers to provide policies in the form of a machine-readable license. When employees of an organization want to use customers' data, they must be forced to abide by the licences provided. Some sort of hardened terminal must be used to ensure that not only the hardware and software will cooperate, but that the user of the terminal will too. We use the Trusted Computing Group's specifications for a trusted platform upon which to build a data user terminal that can be proved to implement correct license-enforcing behavior. A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and a TPM-using operating system are all that may be required to construct a verifiably secure terminal.

Privacy in video surveilled spaces

We present a system prototype for self-determination and privacy enhancement in video surveilled areas by integrating computer vision and cryptographic techniques into networked building automation systems. This paper describes a system prototype and research work that has been conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers. People appearing in a video stream control their visibility on a per-viewer basis and can choose to allow either the real view or an obscured image to be seen. The parts of the video stream containing a person's image are protected by an AES cipher and can be sent over untrusted networks. This paper presents experimental results with the example of a meeting room scenario. We conclude with remarks on the system's usability and on the problems encountered.

Secure push for mobile airline services

In this paper, we propose an architecture for secure push services for mobile users that supports common-of-the-shelf (COTS) WLAN base stations. The architecture focuses on the creation of flexible access networks based on easily deployable base stations. The push functionality is realized using client-initiated connections with SIP, and TLS or dTLS for security. The central building block of the distributed system is the edge proxy, which manages and implicitly authenticates all inbound connections, and performs privacy enhancement. The main driving force of our architecture has been airline services, but the system is applicable also for other service domains.

Introduction: Online Dispute Resolution and Data Protection

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Dr Ronald Leenes is associate professor (senior lecturer) at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). His current research interests are privacy in online environments, including social networks, identity management and identity fraud. 2. See for instance the EU memo on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), MEMO/07/159, 02/05/2007. See http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/159&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en 3. See http://www.prime-project,eu Additional informationNotes on contributorsRonald Leenes1

Transaction pseudonyms in mobile environments

Network Operators start to offer formerly hidden services such as location service, messaging services and presence services. This fosters the development of a new class of innovative context aware applications that are operated by third party application providers. However, without the implementation of proper privacy protection mechanisms, location and presence information, that is processed by third party application providers, may also imply severe risks to users. If no privacy protection is foreseen, the user’s identity could be used maliciously which renders such applications dangerous. To protect the user’s sensitive data such as location information we propose a novel service architecture which fosters the development of innovative applications that brings together internet applications with telco services. An underlying privacy enhancing mechanism that is based on the notion of pseudonyms allows even untrusted third party application providers to access sensitive data provided by telco services such as location, presence or messaging services. Due to their high security, pseudonyms guarantee that the user’s identity is kept secret towards the untrusted application providers. Due to its low computational complexity this pseudonym generation scheme can also be implemented on devices such as mobile phones and digital assistants with only little computational power and restricted memory capabilities. To illustrate our approach, we demonstrate a transportation ticket application that implements the proposed service architecture. This application allows the use of transportation tickets which are extended by the location-tracking functionality. Similar to the well known paper based transportation tickets our solution supports anonymity of users even if the ticket application “knows” the location of the holder.

A Study on Protection Vulnerability of RFID and Privacy Enhancing Technology

A Study on Protection Vulnerability of RFID and Privacy Enhancing Technology

Privacy Enhancing Technologies

The sixth annual Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET) was held in Cambridge, England, from 28-30 June 2006.

An information privacy taxonomy for collaborative environments

PurposeInformation Privacy is becoming an increasingly important field of research with many new definitions and terminologies. Along similar rates of increase are the use, uptake and expansion of collaborative environments (CEs). There is a need for a better understanding and classification of information privacy concepts and terms. The purpose of this paper is to provide a taxonomy of information privacy in CEs. The knowledge provided from an information privacy taxonomy can be used to formulate better information privacy policies, practices, and privacy enhancing technologies.Design/methodology/approachThrough the hierarchical classification and categorization of information privacy concepts and principles an organized representation of these components has been produced. Each area was well surveyed and researched and then classified into a number of sub‐categories according to their nature and relevance.FindingsA taxonomy was successfully developed with the identification of three high level dimensions of information privacy. Within each dimensional view a further three sub‐classifications were proposed each with their own unique nature.Originality/valueThis paper provides an Information Privacy taxonomy for CEs, the first of its kind to be proposed. A number of new Information privacy terms are defined that make up the categorization and classification of information privacy concepts and components.

Current and future privacy enhancing technologies for the internet

This paper presents an overview of the current and next solutions for privacy protection on the Internet. We highlight five categories of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (Pets). First, we introduce the multiple virtual identities that can represent a person, and the way the person can manage them. Then, we focus on the untraceability problem, which has been a major field of research since the very first papers on privacy protection in the early eighties. Anonymous access to services will be the central point of the third category of pets we consider. To complete this overview, we describe the current and future authorization pets, and finish by a presentation of personal data management. For each of these categories we present some of the current technologies and the most promising ones under development.

Enhancing customer privacy while searching for products and services on the world wide web

PurposeTo propose a model of a privacy‐enhanced catalogue search system (PECSS) in an attempt to address privacy threats to consumers, who search for products and services on the world wide web.Design/methodology/approachThe model extends an agent‐based architecture for electronic catalogue mediation by supplementing it with a privacy enhancement mechanism. This mechanism introduces fake queries into the original stream of user queries, in an attempt to reduce the similarity between the actual interests of users (“internal user profile”) and the interests as observed by potential eavesdroppers on the web (“external user profile”). A prototype was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the model.FindingsThe evaluation of the model indicates that, by generating five fake queries per each original user query, the user's profile is hidden most effectively from any potential eavesdropper. Future research is needed to identify the optimal glossary of fake queries for various clients. The model also should be tested against various attacks perpetrated against the mixed stream of original and fake queries (i.e. statistical clustering).Research limitations/implicationsThe model's feasibility was evaluated through a prototype. It was not empirically tested against various statistical methods used by intruders to reveal the original queries.Practical implicationsA useful architecture for electronic commerce providers, internet service providers (ISP) and individual clients who are concerned with their privacy and wish to minimize their dependencies on third‐party security providers.Originality/valueThe contribution of the PECSS model stems from the fact that, as the internet gradually transforms into a non‐free service, anonymous browsing cannot be employed any more to protect consumers' privacy, and therefore other approaches should be explored. Moreover, unlike other approaches, our model does not rely on the honesty of any third mediators and proxies that are also exposed to the interests of the client. In addition, the proposed model is scalable as it is installed on the user's computer.

Privacy Protection Via Technology

Increasingly, the Internet is used as a common tool for communication, information gathering, and online transactions. Information privacy is threatened as users are expected to reveal personal information without knowing the consequences of sharing their information. To that end, research groups, both from academia and industry, have embarked on the development of privacy enhancement technologies. One such technology is Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P). Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), P3P has a number of prominent stakeholders such as IBM, Microsoft, and AT&T. Yet, there is little published information on what P3P is and to what extent it is being adopted by e-business organizations. This study is exploratory in nature and aims at addressing these questions; in particular, we look at P3P both as a new technology and as a standard. We use our empirical data on top 500 interactive companies to assess its adoption.

Access Control for Security and Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) demands new security and privacy enhancing technologies for the new information and communication environments where a huge number of computers interact with each other in a distributed and ad hoc manner to access various resources and services. This paper surveys emerging security and privacy enhancing technologies, focusing on access control in ubiquitous computing environments because this is the underlying core technology to enforce security and privacy policies. We classify access control technologies into three types associated with the three access control phases of prevention, avoidance, and detection, and provide an overview of ubiquitous computing-oriented technologies and solutions, ranging from security and privacy models and policies to the enforcement of policies and system implementation.

FIPs and PETs for RFID: Protecting Privacy in the Web of Radio Frequency Identification

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), like many other technologies, is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, this automatic identification technology would enable entirely unobstructed visibility into the supply chain, and would dramatically cut down on industry's costs. On the other hand, RFID carries less glamorous prospects for the other end of the supply chain, and raises consumer privacy issues both in, and outside of, the retail surroundings. Not only are there extended capabilities of data collection furnished by RFID technology, a new threat of tracking individuals has appeared. Inherent drawbacks in the Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that were developed in an attempt to address these concerns make it impossible, at least at this stage of development, for the technologies to independently provide a satisfactory response to the privacy concerns. Therefore, in order to achieve adequate privacy protection, industry's behavior should not only be directed by technology, but must also be regulated otherwise. This paper calls to embrace self-regulation measures, and argues that at this point, legislation or other governmental regulation are not yet warranted, as it may deny businesses and consumers of the benefits of the technology. For this purpose, existing Fair Information Practices (FIPs) offer a good baseline, but cannot be adopted as-is to RFID technology. The paper attempts to assess what fair information practices are to be adopted and how some of the existing principles should be adapted and tailored to the distinctive characteristics of RFID technology and its repercussions. The end result is a set of ten RFID-customized principles of fair information practices that could serve as the foundation of a strong privacy policy with respect to the usage of RFID tags, hopefully to be adopted by the industry.

A New Challenge to Privacy Management: Adapting Fair Information Practices to Radio Frequency Identification Technology

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), like many other technologies, is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, this automatic identification technology would enable entirely unobstructed visibility into the supply chain, and would dramatically cut down on industry's costs. On the other hand, RFID carries less glamorous prospects for the other end of the supply chain, and raises consumer privacy issues both in, and outside of, the retail surroundings. Not only are there extended capabilities of data collection furnished by RFID technology, a new threat of tracking individuals has appeared. Inherent drawbacks in the Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that were developed in an attempt to address these concerns make it impossible, at least at this stage of development, for the technologies to independently provide a satisfactory response to the privacy concerns. Therefore, in order to achieve adequate privacy protection, industry's behavior should not only be directed by technology, but must also be regulated otherwise. This paper calls to embrace self-regulation measures, and argues that at this point, legislation or other governmental regulation are not yet warranted, as it may deny businesses and consumers of the benefits of the technology. For this purpose, existing Fair Information Practices (FIPs) offer a good baseline, but cannot be adopted as-is to RFID technology. The paper attempts to assess what fair information practices are to be adopted and how some of the existing principles should be adapted and tailored to the distinctive characteristics of RFID technology and its repercussions. The end result is a set of ten RFID-customized principles of fair information practices that could serve as the foundation of a strong privacy policy with respect to the usage of RFID tags, hopefully to be adopted by the industry.

Unintended consequences of emerging communication technologies: Instant Messaging in the workplace

With increased global connectivity, managers are faced with new technologies and rapid organizational changes. For instance, organizations may adopt emerging technologies such as Instant Messaging in order to increase collaboration at a distance and to decrease communications costs. However, the impact and implications of these technologies for managers and employees often go far beyond the original intent of the technology designers. Consequently, in this study, instant messaging (IM) and its use in organizations were investigated through interviews with employees. Results suggest that critical mass represents an important factor for IM success in the workplace that IM symbolizes informality, and that IM is perceived to be much less rich than face-to-face communication. Further, results demonstrate that employees use IM not only as a replacement for other communication media but as an additional method for reaching others. With IM, employees engage in polychronic communication, view IM as privacy enhancing, and see its interruptive nature as unfair. The paper concludes by discussing research and practice implications for organizational psychologists.

Surveillance and Security: A Dodgy Relationship1

Modern societies are vulnerable. We have known this long before the attacks of 11 September 2001, but they made it clear to everyone. The second lesson learned from the attacks was that it is impossible to foresee such events. Although these attacks to the real world were “low‐tech”, now there are attempts around the globe to control especially the electronic or virtual world. However, does more surveillance really lead to more security? If so, what will be the price we have to pay?National states try to provide their citizens with a high level of security, but the effort for better security often gets mixed up with the claim for more surveillance. This is one reason why, over the past few months, governmental activities seemed to jeopardise the internationally acknowledged fundamental right of privacy. Societal security versus personal freedom is an old and well‐known area of conflict. In the light of the incidents of 11 September 2001 some old ideas for surveillance and for measures restricting privacy got on the agenda again – and new ones keep emerging.This article will give an overview of what happened on a governmental level after 11 September 2001 in the EU, in some EU‐member states and in the USA. Apart from political actions, we already face even direct socio‐economic implications as some anonymiser services were shut down. They empowered Internet users to protect their right of privacy, and they were the first targets of investigation and suspicion. Shutting down these services reduces the potential room for users to protect their privacy by using Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). This is an indicator for a serious societal problem: democracy has already changed.In the second part I will analyse the relationship between surveillance and security and I will argue that, and give reasons why, these international over‐reactions will not lead to the intended effects. Rather, they will have long‐term implications for the respective societies. So in the end this has to be acknowledged in a necessary appreciation of values.

Relative Influences of Affect and Cognition on Behavior: Are Feelings or Beliefs More Related to Blood Donation Intentions?

Relative Influences of Affect and Cognition on Behavior: Are Feelings or Beliefs More Related to Blood Donation Intentions?