Barker, Kenneth (University of Calgary)

Purpose

Privacy is about choice and context . Choice is critical because each individual must be able to define what they want to hold as private. Context defines the framework around which private information is shared and the limits on its use once it has been shared. Each individual will make different choices about what is private and will have multiple contexts in which the private information should be shared. Privacy preserving and aware data systems are needed that respect individual choice and allow the user to define variance arising as a result of different contexts. Data privacy must be defined analogously. Any data collected about us should be treated in conformance with individual preferences about the data (or ideally, and more generally, about whom the data is collected.) These preferences define the provider’s choices about a data item's sensitivity, and when and with whom the data can be shared (context).