ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : Events : Dagstuhl Ubicomp

Dagstuhl Ubicomp - Abstract

Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing

Marc Langheinrich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing is like the weather: Everybody's talking about it, but no one is doing anything about it. In this talk I try to give ten (good) reasons why it is a good idea to care about privacy in ubiquitous computing; five reasons why privacy in ubiquitous computing is different from privacy on, say, the Internet; as well as ten things to ask yourself when it comes to building privacy-aware ubiquitous computing systems. Below are the corresponding lists.

Why bother with privacy? It's a human right It's a legal requirement Privacy sells Privacy costs money Ignoring privacy costs more money Privacy is not just Anonymity Privacy is not just Security There are no 100% guarantees Privacy requires trust Privacy is always a trade-off	Privacy To-do-List How much data do I need to collect? How much anonymous or pseudonymous data can I use? Give notice! Offer the user a choice Get the user's consent Provide security for any personal data collected Delete unwanted personal data ASAP Provide user access Be accountable Collect and process data locally
What's special about Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing? It's inhomogeneous It's invisible It's comprehensive It's smart Nobody's paying attention

See also the corresponding Ubicomp 2001 Paper.

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