Privacy and identity management

Research opportunities

We've all seen the headlines: Credit-card fraud. Identify theft. Security breaches. Leaks, loss and misuse of confidential information.

Although the still-evolving digital world has improved our lives in many ways, it's also generated a whole new generation of privacy threats.

Many online activities -- from shopping to banking to applying for jobs -- involve the transfer, use and storage of some kind of personal information. Policymakers worry that citizens' fears about others gaining unauthorized access to their personal information will prevent them from fully participating in an increasingly digital society.

Meanwhile, organizations of all kinds are under increasing pressure to better protect that data while maintaining business operations and controlling costs. Even when well-meaning enterprises enact strict privacy policies, compliance often fails due to simple human error.

Research focus

Current work

Our researchers are focusing on:

• Privacy policy-enforcement technologies, such as fine-grained access control (for instance, determining which parts of customer information records may be used for what purposes by which employees or business processes) and personal data lifecycle management (for instance, systemically controlling when parts of customer information records should be deleted).
• System-monitoring technologies that check and report on actual compliance to privacy policies.

In addition, researchers play a leading role in Privacy and Identity Management for Europe (PRIME), a major four-year European Union project to improve privacy-enhancing technologies.

Future applications

Ultimately, we hope our efforts lead to universal participation in the digital economy -- and universal confidence among citizens and consumers that their information is being protected and controlled according to their wishes.

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