Enforcing Context-Awareness and Privacy-by-Design in the Specification of Information Systems

Abstract

Networked physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity, allow for run-time acquisition of user data. This in turn can enable information systems which capture the "current" user state and act accordingly. The use of this data would result in context-aware applications that get fueled by user data (and environmental data) to adapt their behavior. Yet the use of data is often restricted by privacy regulations and norms; for example, the location of a person cannot be shared without given consent. In this paper we propose a design approach that allows for weaving context-awareness and privacy-by-design into the specification of information systems. This is to be done since the very early stages of the software development, while the enterprise needs are captured (and understood) and the software features are specified on that basis. In addition to taking into account context-awareness and privacy-sensitivity these two aspects will be balanced, especially if they are conflicting. The presented approach extends the "Software Derived from Business Components" (SDBC) approach. We partially demonstrate our proposed way of modeling, by means of a case example featuring land border security. Our proposed way of modeling would allow developers to smoothly reflect context and privacy features in the application design, supported by methodological guidelines that span over the enterprise modeling and software specification. Those features are captured as technology-independent societal demands and are in the end reflected in technology-specific (software) solutions. Traceability between the two is possible as well as re-use of modeling constructs.

Composite Public Values and Software Specifications

“…Finally, as above-mentioned, the proposed design approach is consistent with SDBC [7] and all further design/modeling activities could proceed according to SDBC (and for this reason, we abstract from those activities in the current paper); moreover, SDBC has been applied in addressing the specification of valuesensitive systems [8,9]. We hence only emphasize on the importance of decomposing composite values, such that they are adequately reflected in the corresponding software specifications.…”

“…Nevertheless, this is all about atomic values (encapsulating only one particular behavioral goal) while one would often face values that are composite in the sense that they reflect a particular human attitude rather than just a desired behavioral goal. An example for the former is the desire to realize something in a privacy-sensitive way [8]; an example for the latter is the desire to achieve egalitarianism [2].…”

“…Whereas, atomic values are weave-able in the (software) design, as studied by Shishkov et al [8,9,10], they are claimed to be not very "instrumental" as it concerns social feedback. In our view that is because most of those values (such as privacy, transparency, accountability, and so on) are to be considered in a particular context [8,9,11].…”

“…In our view that is because most of those values (such as privacy, transparency, accountability, and so on) are to be considered in a particular context [8,9,11]. Then people consider them differently depending on the context.…”

Three Categories of Context-Aware Systems

“…That is because context states are about the enterprise environment of a (software) system while the delivery of context-aware services is about technical (software) functionalities; hence, we need a perspective on both. Stepping on previous work, we consider the SDBC (Software Derived from Business Components) approach that brings together enterprise modeling and software specification [17,18,20]. On that basis:…”