Saving on-line privacy

Abstract

With the increasing use of electronic media for our daily transactions, we widely distribute our personal information. Once released, controlling the dispersal of these information is virtually impossible. Privacy-enhancing technologies can help to minimize the amount of information that needs to be revealed in transactions, on the one hand, and to limit the dispersal, on the other hand. Unfortunately, these technologies are hardly used today. In this paper we aim to foster the adoption by providing a summary of what such technologies can achieve. We hope that by this, policy makers, system architects, and security practitioners will be able to employ privacy-enhancing technologies.