Design for the value of privacy

Abstract

In a time where more and more information about people is collected, especially in the digital domain, the right to be left alone and to be free of surveillance, i.e., privacy, is no longer as self-evident as it once was. Therefore, it is important that new systems are designed with privacy in mind. This chapter explores the notion of privacy and how to design “privacy-preserving” systems: systems that are designed with privacy for the end users in mind. Several design approaches that address this issue, such as “Privacy by Design,” “Value Sensitive Design,” and “Privacy Enhancing Technologies,” are discussed. Examples of privacy-preserving (and breaking) systems, ranging from smart meters to electronic health records, are used to illustrate the main difficulties of designing such systems.