Privacy-aware mobile agent: Protecting privacy in open systems by modelling social behaviour of software agents

Abstract

In distributed problem solving with multi-agent systems it is assumed that collective behaviour emerges from interaction among rational agents. The dissemination of mobile agents will lead to open systems. Emergent behaviour in open systems must fulfil common goals based on goals of individual agents. Therefore, goals and tasks need to be coordinated in such a way that the desired collective behaviour emerges. At the same time, the autonomy of agents must be restricted by imposing norms on the system in order to prevent misuse and undesired effects of potential emergent behaviour. The European Privacy Directive is a collection of normative principles that can be implemented in a multi-agent system. A model for enabling emergent and normative behaviour based on social interaction paradigms is presented in this paper. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.