L. Kool

Privacy by Design: an alternative to existing practice in safeguarding privacy

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop/elaborate the concept Privacy by Design (PbD) and to explore the validity of the PbD framework. Design/methodology/approach: Attention for alternative concepts, such as PbD, which might offer surplus value in safeguarding privacy, is growing. Using PbD to design for privacy in ICT systems is still rather underexplored and requires substantial conceptual and empirical work to be done. The methodology includes conceptual analysis, empirical validation (focus groups and interviews) and technological testing (a technical demonstrator was build). Findings: A holistic PbD approach can offer surplus value in better safeguarding of privacy without losing functional requirements. However, the implementation is not easily realised and confronted with several difficulties such as: potential lack of economic incentives, legacy systems, lack of adoption of trust of end-users and consumers in PbD. Originality/value: The article brings together/incorporates several contemporary insights on privacy protection and privacy by design and develops/presents a holistic framework for Privacy by Design framework consisting of five building blocks.

Privacy implications of RFID: An assessment of threats and opportunites

European citizens consider Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to be the most intrusive technology of the past two decades. Safeguarding privacy requires specific action that needs attention of all parties involved. European citizens consider legal instruments to offer insufficient guarantees for safeguarding privacy. ‘Privacy by design’ offers interesting opportunities to build in privacy guarantees in the technology, not as an end-of-pipe solution but as an integral design parameter. Notwithstanding the commercial focus on RFID in logistic processes and — eventually — in the retail sector, the first grand scale uses of RFID will be in public domain applications. These application domains are perfect ‘niches’ to stimulate a ‘privacy by design’ approach, both to academic researchers and application engineers.

Privacy implications of RFID: an assessment of threats and opportunites.

European citizens consider Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to be the most intrusive technology of the past two decades. Safeguarding privacy requires specific action that needs attention of all parties involved. European citizens consider legal instruments to offer insufficient guarantees for safeguarding privacy. ‘Privacy by design’ offers interesting opportunities to build in privacy guarantees in the technology, not as an end-of-pipe solution but as an integral design parameter. Notwithstanding the commercial focus on RFID in logistic processes and — eventually — in the retail sector, the first grand scale uses of RFID will be in public domain applications. These application domains are perfect ‘niches’ to stimulate a ‘privacy by design’ approach, both to academic researchers and application engineers.