Tag Archives: Privacy

Jana Herwig

The Future, Quantum Encryption, Privacy on the Social Semantic Web

by , Category: Semantics & Philosophy, Social Software

Just two memos: There is a talk tonight with Thomas Länger from the Viennese quantum encryption project (BBC article about the project), co-organized by quintessenz (an organisation devoted to civil rights in the information age) and Transforming Freedom (who are dedicated to documenting the discourse of the battle zones of digital culture; I volunteer for them). ORF wrote a German article about it, with information about the venue and start time. The key issue quintessenz want to raise with this talk is: Who is going to benefit? Will “unbrekable” quantum encryption become available to citizens, too? Quantum encryption cartridges for your PC, anyone?

Secondly: I published an “inaugural interview” Marion Fugléwicz-Bren did with two of my colleagues, Matthias Samwald and Thomas Schandl (not so inaugural for the former, as he already joined SWC in January). I’d like to extract this quote by W3C member Samwald regarding privacy on the (corporation owned) social web and the future (user-managed) social semantic web:

I also think that Semantic Web technologies will receive a lot of media attention when the first big, public breach in security / privacy happens in one of the websites that currently dominate the whole world wide web. At the moment, we all are uploading most of our private and business lives to web sites such as Google, Facebook, Flickr and others. It is just a matter of time until a big scandal happens, be it the companies themselves that misuse the vast amounts of data they have, or be it a government agency in an overzealous effort of crime prevention.

When this will happen, people will re-evaluate the trend towards massive centralisation on the web, and will search for opportunities to make the same feeling of being ‘in the network’ happen in a distributed environment, without selling ones soul to a multinational corporation. Then we will find that such an opportunity already exists — the Semantic Web.

Read the whole interview here.

Tassilo Pellegrini

Economic evidence for the need of a Policy Aware Web?

by , Category: Internet & Media, Politics, Privacy & Information Ethics

In a recent study the authors Aleecia McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor of Carnegie Mellon University found out that the time allocated for reading online privacy policies on the websites you regularly visit would produce a total loss in productivity and time equalling $365 billion a year.

These findings are based on empirical data estimating that an average internet user invests approximatly USD 3000.- per year getting to grips with the various privacy policies of their service providers.

But – bluntly speaking – as “noone” reads privacy statements anyway, this is not a real economic loss. So you might say it is an academic problem. But still it raises the interesting question what it would cost if you as an internet end-user wanted to make use of your civil rights and gain some souvereignty towards your service providers.

So here the question arises how semantic web technologies, especially the Policy Aware Web, can be a viable solution to this economic problem. But the answer to the question is a political one, which means it will be up to the politicians to recognise this problem and support a (technological?) solution … which from my point means that there are interesting times ahead for a Policy Aware Web.

Read a more detailed coverage of the study at out-law.com.

Author: Tassilo Pellegrini

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Jana Herwig

Ken North: EU privacy laws are thought-leading

by , Category: Conferences & Events, Privacy & Information Ethics

Ken North, LinkedData PlanetIn a recent interview just published on our web site, Ken North (from the LinkedData Planet conference faculty) suggested that EU privacy laws can be a guiding light in the process of modelling privacy regulations for the web of data:

Many members of the emergent Linked Data and Open Data developer communities are Europeans who are familiar with EU privacy laws. We need them to serve as thought leaders on ethical issues related to publishing open data, although we’ll still need global awareness of privacy issues. We also need an international agreement that provides a process for resolving disputes about the accuracy or removal of private and confidential data.

I’m currently having a mild case of tunnel vision regarding privacy issues, partly also because I attended the PRISE conference here in Vienna last week. It was the concluding conference for the PRISE project, the aim of which was to provide “criteria and guidelines for privacy enhancing security research and for the application of the developed security solutions. As a supporting activity under the PASR programme the project will assist the European Union in shaping forthcoming security research programmes in accordance with its fundamental values.” PRISE developed a framework to ensure that privacy policies are already considered in the design of research projects, and not simply taken care of as an ‘add-on’ shortly before the release of a prototype or publictaion of a research project. In other words: Research on privacy friendly research – I approve!

So if there’s anybody in the Linked Data and Open Data community eager on getting in touch with people familiar with the technological side of EU privacy laws: PRISE was coordinated by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, more specifically by Johann Cas at the Institute for Technology Assessment. I am also happy to put you in touch if need be! Also, don’t forget to read the full interview with Ken North.