Towards meeting the privacy challenge: Adapting DRM

Abstract

Achieving the privacy needs for applications as expressed in law is complex. Currently there is no commonly accepted technical approach for meeting these privacy requirements. An often-fruitful way for uncovering solutions to challenges such as this is to examine how technologies used in quite different applications may be adapted for the purpose. In this paper, we examine the prospect of adapting systems designed for Digital Rights Management for the purpose of Privacy Rights Management for European Community. We begin by outlining the legal requirements for privacy under the European Union Data Directive. After an overview of digital rights management systems, we describe adaptations for transforming a DRM system into a privacy rights management system. We also detail the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.