Privacy through anonymisation in large-scale socio-technical systems: Multi-lingual contact centres across the EU

Abstract

Large-scale socio-technical systems (STS) inextricably interconnect individual–e.g., the right to privacy–, social–e.g., the effectiveness of organisational processes–, and technology issues—e.g., the software engineering process. As a result, the design of the complex software infrastructure involves also non-technological aspects such as the legal ones—so that, e.g., law-abidingness can be ensured since the early stages of the software engineering process. By focussing on contact centres (CC) as relevant examples of knowledge-intensive STS, we elaborate on the articulate aspects of anonymisation: there, individual and organisational needs clash, so that only an accurate balancing between legal and technical aspects could possibly ensure the system efficiency while preserving the individual right to privacy. We discuss first the overall legal framework, then the general theme of anonymisation in CC. Finally we overview the technical process developed in the context of the BISON project.