Privacy Languages

Abstract

Privacy protection is one of the most prominent concerns for web users. Despite numerous efforts, users remain powerless in controlling how their personal information should be used and by whom, and find limited options to actually opt-out of dominating service providers, who often process users information with limited transparency or respect for their privacy preferences. Privacy languages are designed to express the privacy-related preferences of users and the practices of organisations, in order to establish a privacy-preserved data handling protocol. However, in practice there has been limited adoption of these languages, by either users or data controllers. This survey paper attempts to understand the strengths and limitations of existing policy languages, focusing on their capacity of enabling users to express their privacy preferences. Our preliminary results show a lack of focus on normal web users, in both language design and their tooling design. This systematic survey lays the ground work for future privacy protection designs that aim to be centred around web users for empowering their control of data privacy.

Understanding electronic word of behavior: conceptualization of the observable digital traces of consumers’ behaviors

“…It has been defined as "records of activity (trace data) undertaken through an online information system (thus, digital)" (Howison, Wiggins, & Crowston, 2011, p. 769) and also sometimes referred to as 'Digital Footprints' (e.g. Zhao, Binns, Kleek, & Shadbolt, 2016). Driven by the increasingly digital lives of our time, most of us leave innumerable digital traces everyday (Zhao et al, 2016).…”

“…Zhao, Binns, Kleek, & Shadbolt, 2016). Driven by the increasingly digital lives of our time, most of us leave innumerable digital traces everyday (Zhao et al, 2016). Some of these traces are intentionally left by users.…”

E-Government und Datensouveränität – Einblicke und Lösungsansätze

“…Sie werden selten gelesen und ihnen wird oft unkritisch zugestimmt (Tabassum et al 2018). Mögliche Lösungen zu einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung betreffen die Nutzung von privacy languages (Zhao et al 2016)…”

Let the Computer Say NO! The Neglected Potential of Policy Definition Languages for Data Sovereignty

“…One of these scenarios is the use of PDLs to influence consumers' privacy perceptions, PDLs can represent a company's privacy practices, inform the company about consumer preferences for data handling, and adjust company practices to consumer preferences [25]. Privacy-focused PDLs did not find widespread adoption because they are either too complicated or too simplistic to cope with consumers' privacy preferences [26,27]. Overall, the development of privacy PDLs shows a stronger focus on data controllers than consumers [26].…”

“…Privacy-focused PDLs did not find widespread adoption because they are either too complicated or too simplistic to cope with consumers' privacy preferences [26,27]. Overall, the development of privacy PDLs shows a stronger focus on data controllers than consumers [26]. Due to the ability of some privacy PDLs to restrict access to resources, comparisons with security PDLs are common [28].…”