In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

Usually, a proof of a theorem contains more knowledge than the mere fact that the theorem is true. For instance, to prove that a graph is Hamiltonian it suffices to exhibit a Hamiltonian tour in it; however, this seems to contain more knowledge than the single bit Hamiltonian/non-Hamiltonian.In this paper a computational complexity theory of the “knowledge” contained in a proof is developed. Zero-knowledge proofs are defined as those proofs that convey no additional knowledge other than the correctness of the proposition in question. Examples of zero-knowledge proof systems are given for the languages of quadratic residuosity and 'quadratic nonresiduosity. These are the first examples of zero-knowledge proofs for languages not known to be efficiently recognizable.

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The knowledge complexity of interactive proof-systems

To date, many important threads of information privacy research have developed, but these threads have not been woven together into a cohesive fabric. This paper provides an interdisciplinary review of privacy-related research in order to enable a more cohesive treatment. With a sample of 320 privacy articles and 128 books and book sections, we classify previous literature in two ways: (1) using an ethics-based nomenclature of normative, purely descriptive, and empirically descriptive, and (2) based on their level of analysis: individual, group, organizational, and societal.

Based upon our analyses via these two classification approaches, we identify three major areas in which previous research contributions reside: the conceptualization of information privacy, the relationship between information privacy and other constructs, and the contextual nature of these relationships.

As we consider these major areas, we draw three overarching conclusions. First, there are many theoretical developments in the body of normative and purely descriptive studies that have not been addressed in empirical research on privacy. Rigorous studies that either trace processes associated with, or test implied assertions from, these value-laden arguments could add great value. Second, some of the levels of analysis have received less attention in certain contexts than have others in the research to date. Future empirical studies-both positivist and interpretive--could profitably be targeted to these under-researched levels of analysis. Third, positivist empirical studies will add the greatest value if they focus on antecedents to privacy concerns and on actual outcomes. In that light, we recommend that researchers be alert to an overarching macro model that we term APCO (Antecedents → Privacy Concerns → Outcomes).

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Information privacy research: an interdisciplinary review

There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field. In this framework, a research finding is less likely to be true when the studies conducted in a field are smaller; when effect sizes are smaller; when there is a greater number and lesser preselection of tested relationships; where there is greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; when there is greater financial and other interest and prejudice; and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance. Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias. In this essay, I discuss the implications of these problems for the conduct and interpretation of research.

Why most published research findings are false

(1) Whereas the objectives of the Community, as laid down in the Treaty, as amended by the Treaty on European Union, include creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, fostering closer relations between the States belonging to the Community, ensuring economic and social progress by common action to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe, encouraging the constant improvement of the living conditions of its peoples, preserving and strengthening peace and liberty and promoting democracy on the basis of the fundamental rights recognized in the constitution and laws of the Member States and in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

Some Preliminary Comments on the DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

Privacy in the Global Information Society.- IT-Security.- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies.- A Task-Based Privacy Model.- Specification and Implementation of the Privacy Policy Following the Generalised Framework for Access Control- Approach.- Concluding Remarks.- Appendix A: Formal Mathematical Privacy Model.- Appendix B: Implementation of a Hospital Scenario as a Demonstration Example.

IT-Security and Privacy: Design and Use of Privacy-Enhancing Security Mechanisms

Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business : Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, TrustBus 2009, Linz, Austria, September 3-4, 2009

Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business

The shift from a paper-based to an electronic-based society has dramatically reduced the cost of collecting, storing and processing individuals' personal information. As a result, it is becoming more common for businesses to "profile" individuals in order to present more personalized offers as part of their business strategy. While such profiles can be helpful and improve efficiency, they can also govern opaque decisions about an individual's access to services such as credit or an employment position. In many cases, profiling of personal data is done without the consent of the target individual.In the past decade, the European Union and its member states have implemented a legal framework to provide guidance on processing of personal data with the specific aim to restore the citizens' control over their data. To complement the legal framework, the prime (Privacy and Identity Management for Europe) project [14] has implemented a technical framework for processing personal data. prime's vision is to give individuals sovereignty over their personal data so that:Individuals can limit the information collected about them by using pseudo-identities, certifications and cryptography when performing online transactions,Individuals can negotiate legally-binding "privacy policies" with their service providers that govern how disclosed personal data can be used and which precautions must be taken to safeguard it, andIndividuals and service providers can use automated mechanisms to manage their personal data and their obligations towards data which they have collected from other parties.To accomplish this, the prime project has designed and implemented a practical system-level solution which incorporates novel cryptographic protocols, sophisticated security protocols, and artificial intelligence algorithms. This paper describes the architecture of this system. Most key features of this architecture have been implemented in a proof-of-concept prototype.

https://wiki.piratenpartij.nl/_media/pdf:onderzoek:camenisch_et_al.-privacy_and_identity_management_for_everyone.pdf

Privacy and identity management for everyone

Transparency of personal data processing is a basic privacy principle and a right that is well acknowledged by data protection legislation, such as the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR). The objective of ex post transparency enhancing tools (TETs) is to provide users with insight about what data have been processed about them and what possible consequences might arise after their data have been revealed, that is, ex post. This survey assesses the state of the art in scientific literature of the usability of ex post TETs enhancing privacy and discusses them in terms of their common features and unique characteristics. The article first defines the scope of usable transparency in terms of relevant privacy principles for providing transparency by taking the GDPR as a point of reference, and usability principles that are important for achieving transparency. These principles for usable transparency serve as a reference for classifying and assessing the surveyed TETs. The retrieval and screening process of the publications is then described, as is the process for deriving the subsequent classification of the characteristics of the TETs. The survey not only looks into what is made transparent by the TETs but also how transparency is actually achieved. A main contribution of this survey is a proposed classification that assesses the TETs based on their functionality, implementation and evaluation as described in the literature. It concludes by discussing the trends and limitations of the surveyed TETs in regard to the defined scope of usable TETs and shows possible directions of future research for addressing these gaps. This survey provides researchers and developers of privacy enhancing technologies an overview of the characteristics of state of the art ex post TETs, on which they can base their work.

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Simone Fischer-Hübner

Papers

IT-Security and Privacy: Design and Use of Privacy-Enhancing Security Mechanisms

Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business

Privacy and identity management for everyone

Tools for Achieving Usable Ex Post Transparency: A Survey

IT-security and privacy