Guaranteeing privacy-observing data exchange

Abstract

Privacy is a major concern in large of parts of the world when exchanging information. Ideally, we would like to be able to have fine-grained control about how information that we deem sensitive can be propagated and used. While privacy policy languages exist, it is not possible to control whether the entity that receives data is living up to its own policy specification. In this work we present our initial work on an approach that empowers data owners to specify their privacy preferences, and data consumers to specify their data needs. Using a static analysis of the two specifications, our approach then finds a communication scheme that complies with these preferences and needs. While applicable to online transactions, the same techniques can be used in development of IT systems dealing with sensitive data. To the best of our knowledge, no existing privacy policy languages supports negotiation of policies, but only yes/no answers. We also discuss how the same approach can be used to identify a qualitative level of sharing, where data may be shared according to, e.g., the level of trust to another entity.