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Privacy has long been a key aspect of cybersecurity but is often over-shadowed by other pressing security concerns. Indeed, perceptions of privacy can vary widely. Some people consider privacy a basic human right, as reflected in some countries' laws giving people ownership of the data that describe them. Others see it as an archaic holdover from an analog world; here, privacy is viewed as an impediment to trading in the growing marketplace for personal data. Still others see privacy as an impediment to "real" security, which requires sharing data about the people being tracked. What remains undisputed, however, is that both the amount and type of personal information circling in cyberspace are increasing exponentially, fueled by the tracking and data capture done by social networking sites, search engines, smart phones, GPS systems, shared databases, and even copy machines. With support from the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P), researchers from five academic institutions are engaged in a sweeping effort to understand privacy in the digital era. Over the course of 18 months, this research project will take a multidisciplinary look at privacy, examining the roles of human behavior, data exposure, and policy expression on the way people understand and protect their privacy.
The project addresses three key research areas, with the following objectives:
Perception and Awareness
• Better understand how privacy is viewed cross-culturally and contextually.
• Construct a framework for making privacy controls more effective (taking into
account cultural differences).
• Investigate models of data ownership, particularly those that enable an owner to
track third party usage of his or her data.
Policy
• Identify the elements of an effective privacy policy, one that takes into account
the initial context and any subsequent changes to it.
• Improve ways for the average user to compare or combine two privacy policies.
• Model the impact of privacy policy on commerce, public health and welfare.
Privacy Metrics
• Understand the value that privacy measurements (such as an individual’s data exposure)
would provide to an individual and to society. For example, what might various levels
of privacy look like, and how might their application affect discourse or practice?
• Suggest how levels of privacy could be reported and enforced.
• Determine the differences between actual and perceived privacy.
This multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary investigation brings together legal experts, behavioral scientists, sociologists and computer scientists from five I3P member institutions: Carnegie Mellon University, Dartmouth College, Georgia Tech, Indiana University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Over the course of the 18-month project, researchers will interact with industry, government and academia, to ensure that their analysis and findings reflect the realities of privacy in today’s digital age. The project team will disseminate its findings in peer-reviewed publications and at workshops involving all constituencies.
To ensure that the project reflects the needs of all constituencies, the project team will work closely with an external set of advisors drawn from the federal government, private enterprise and a non-governmental organization.
Please contact Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Research Director of the I3P: shari.l.pfleeger@dartmouth.edu for more information.
