Understanding and protecting privacy: Formal semantics and principled audit mechanisms

• Main Authors: DATTA, Anupam, BLOCKI, Jeremiah, CHRISTIN, Nicolas, DeYOUNG, Henry, GARG, Deepak, JIA, Limin, KAYNAR, Dilsun, Arunesh SINHA
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
• Subjects: Databases and Information Systems; Information Security
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/5335; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/6339/viewcontent/2011_Chapter_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Privacy has become a significant concern in modern society as personal information about individuals is increasingly collected, used, and shared, often using digital technologies, by a wide range of organizations. Certain information handling practices of organizations that monitor individuals’ activities on the Web, data aggregation companies that compile massive databases of personal information, cell phone companies that collect and use location data about individuals, online social networks and search engines—while enabling useful services—have aroused much indignation and protest in the name of privacy. Similarly, as healthcare organizations are embracing electronic health record systems and patient portals to enable patients, employees, and business affiliates more efficient access to personal health information, there is trepidation that the privacy of patients may not be adequately protected if information handling practices are not carefully designed and enforced. Given this state of affairs, it is very important to arrive at a general understanding of (a) why certain information handling practices arouse moral indignation, what practices or policies are appropriate in a given setting, and (b) how to represent and enforce such policies using information processing systems. This article summarizes progress on a research program driven by goal (b). We describe a semantic model and logic of privacy that formalizes privacy as a right to appropriate flows of personal information—a position taken by contextual integrity, a philosphical theory of privacy for answering questions of the form identified in (a). The logic is designed with the goal of enabling specification and enforcement