[LINK] openPDS

Tue Jan 14 20:27:53 AEDT 2014

Roger writes,

> (2)  It appears to be a research project, although the info is very
>       skimpy, so it may be an aspiration rather than a project
>
> The aggregation proposal, on the other hand, does need looking at, to
> see if it actually contains an effective isolation mechanism.

Yes the info on this new openPDS initiative is certainly skimpy thus far.

Tho, imho, must say, open source communities always delights in brevity :) 

But, at http://idcubed.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/OpenPDS-software-
from-Human-Dynamics.pdf they do note:

"OpenPDS is implemented with related Trust Network services. An OAuth2 or
OpenID Connect Authorization Server manages authentication & authorization 
processes, and issues access tokens. A Registry server holds a directory of 
participants. We use the Funf open sensing framework (http://funf.org) to 
collect a multitude of sensor data on Android phones, and for securely 
uploading these rich and highly identifiable data sets to OpenPDS."

At http://funf.org which is another MIT effort, they do note as a feature
"encryption of locally stored database files" is their default. Also that:

"As Funf was originally developed for academic research, its features have 
been approved by MIT's Internal Review Board to make sure it adhered to 
strict protocol guidelines for protection of experiment participants. One 
of the key concerns in the design of the study was the protection of 
participant privacy and sensitive information. All of the built-in probes 
include privacy protection measure - For example, data is linked to coded 
identifiers of phone users, and not their real world personal identifiers. 
All human readable text, like phone numbers and text messages are captured 
as hashed identifiers, and never saved in clear text. - See more at: 
http://www.funf.org/about.html#sthash.zncoeTTX.dpuf"

So they are commencing their experiment with the right initial perspective
and privacy protections anyway. One hopes this fine spirit should continue?

Cheers,
Stephen

 _________________________________________________________________________
> 
> >openPDS
> >
> >Personal Data with Privacy
> >
> >  http://openpds.media.mit.edu
> >
> >
> >PHILOSOPHY
> >
> >openPDS allows users to collect, store, and give fine-grained access to
> >their data all while protecting their privacy.
> >
> >With the rise of smartphones and their built-in sensors as well as web-
> >apps, an increasing amount of personal data is being silently collected.
> >
> >Personal datañdigital information about usersí location, calls, web-
> >searches, and preferencesñis undoubtedly the oil of the new economy.
> >
> >However, the lack of access to the data makes it very hard if not
> >impossible for an individual to understand and manage the risks 
associated
> >with the collected data.
> >
> >Therefore, advancements in using and mining this data have to evolve in
> >parallel with considerations about ownership and privacy.
> >
> >Many of the initial and critical steps towards individuals data 
ownership
> >are technological. Given the huge number of data sources that a user
> >interacts with on a daily basis, interoperability is not enough.
> >
> >Rather, the user needs to actually own a secured space, a Personal Data
> >Store (PDS) acting as a centralized location where his data live. Owning 
a
> >PDS would allow the user to view and reason about the data collected.
> >
> >The user can then truly control the flow of data and manage fine-grained
> >authorizations for accessing his data.
> >
> >OUR VISION
> >
> >We believe that a a New Deal on data is needed. When it comes from data,
> >"ownership" should to be thought of according to the old English common
> >law. Data ownership would therefore be defined as the rights of 
possession,
> >use, and disposal instead of a literal ownership.
> >
> >CURRENT THINKING
> >
> >Discussions on such changes and their implications for privacy must also
> >take into account the current political and legal context. We developed
> >openPDS to be the reference implementation of the policies proposed by 
the
> >National Strategy for Trust Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), The
> >Department of Commerce Green Paper, and the Office of the Presidentís
> >International Strategy for Cyberspace. openPDS implementation is also
> >aligned with the European Commissionís 2012 reform of the data 
protection
> >rules. This reform states individualsí right to be forgotten, to have
> >easier access to their data, and to be able to easily transfer them.
> >
> >These recommendations, proposed reforms, and regulations all recognize 
the
> >increasing need for personal data to be under the control of the 
individual
> >as he is the one who can best mitigate associated risks
> >
> >RULES
> >
> >The system rules and participation agreements address the need for
> >harmonized business, legal and technical measures to enable distributed 
and
> >interoperable systems such as openPDS.
> >
> >The latest version of the documents are available on our GitHub 
repository,
> >where the current research and development on the legal and software 
code
> >is openly available for public access and re-use.
> >
> >All of our code is open-source and freely available on our GitHub 
account.
> >
> >
> >PRIVACY RISKS
> >
> >Protecting the privacy of personal data is known to be a hard problem.
> >
> >The recent advances in collecting, storing, and processing high-
dimensional
> >data such as call or credit card records at scale makes it even harder.
> >
> >The risks associated with these high-dimensional data are often subtle 
and
> >hard to predict and anonymizing them is known to be a challenge.
> >
> >Geospatial data, the second most recorded information by smartphone 
apps,
> >is probably the best example of the risks and rewards associated with 
high-
> >dimensional data. On the one hand, the number of users of location-aware
> >services such as Google Local Search, Foursquare and Glancee, are rising
> >quickly as they demonstrate the benefits of location-based services to
> >users. On the other hand, a recent study showed that 4 spatio-temporal
> >points, approximate places and times, are enough to uniquely identify 
95%
> >of 1.5M people in a mobility database. The study further shows that 
these
> >constraints hold even when the resolution of the dataset is low. 
Therefore,
> >even coarse or blurred datasets provide little anonymity.
> >
> >ONLY ANSWERS, NO RAW DATA
> >
> >We strongly believe that it will be extremely difficult to anonymize 
high-
> >dimensional data such as geolocation while retaining the value of the 
data.
> >
> >Consequently, openPDS turns the problem on its head using a innovative
> >SafeAnswers framework. SafeAnswers allows applications to ask questions
> >that will be answer using the user's personal data.
> >
> >In practice, applications will send code to be run against the data and 
the
> >answer will be send back to them. openPDS ships code, not data. openPDS
> >turns a very hard anonymization problem to an easier security problem.
> >
> >SafeAnswers uses two separate layers for aggregating the userís data:
> >
> >(1) sensitive data processing takes place within the userís PDS allowing
> >the dimensionality of the data to be safely reduced on a per-need basis;
> >
> >(2) data can be anonymously aggregated across users without the need to
> >share sensitive data with an intermediate entity through a privacy-
> >preserving group computation method
> >
> >With SafeAnswers generic computations on user data are performed in the
> >safe environment of the PDS, under the control of the user: the user 
does
> >not have to hand data over to receive a service.
> >
> >Only the answers, summarized data, necessary to the app leaves the
> >boundaries of the userís PDS.
> >
> >Rather than exporting raw accelerometer or GPS data, it could be 
sufficient
> >for an app to know if youíre active or which general geographic zone you
> >are currently in. Instead of sending raw accelerometers readings or GPS
> >coordinates to the app ownerís server to process, that computation can 
be
> >done inside the userís PDS by the corresponding Q&A module.
> >
> >--
> >
> >Regards,
> >Stephen
> >
> >Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Link mailing list
> >Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> >http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> 
> --
> 
> Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
> 
> Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
> Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
> mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/
> 
> Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
> Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server