Re: Context and privacy

Oshani,

I will try to answer back (for the record) based on the conversation we 
had this morning.


Oshani Seneviratne wrote:
> Could you clarify what you mean by "assertions" here please?

By assertions I meant anything expressed in RDF of the format:

subject predicate object.

I understand your definition of assertion to mean derivable information 
given a statement, or set of statement and a rule.


> Given some piece of information "X":
> Is it like "X is mumble"?

Yes.

> or, is it the fact that "X is generated by Ronald"?

Yes, I suppose.

> or, is it more like "X was generated subjected to rules A and B (in
> context C)", "Rule A is blah" and "Rule B is blah blah"

No, I think this meets your criteria but it is not really what I had in 
mind when I wrote the email.


> 
> Yes, changing the context gives rise to a privacy concern.

Yes, after reading and talking to you, I agree.

> 
> FWIW, it has been shown that it is possible to make use of the rules
> governing the information in the original context (for example the
> information category, the purposes which it can be used for, the
> people or agents who have access to that, etc) and model these rules
> to suit the new context by what is known as "Data Purpose Algebra"
> [1]. The premise here is that you can derive a new "purpose function"
> to suit the new context. While you cannot really exert any control on
> the information that is being moved around, this data purpose algebra
> method can be used to *attach* a suitable privacy policy which relates
> the original context to the new one.
> 
> [1] Data Purpose Algebra -
> http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2006/Papers/Policy07/data-purpose-algebra.pdf
> 

It is exciting to see this has been considered in so much depth. 
Unfortunately, this is beyond my immediate skills to really understand.
Hopefully, as discussed, we can explore the applicability of this 
approach to the specific context of social networking sites and the use 
cases articulated by the XG and the ones we briefly went over. I will 
write down the three I felt were thought provoking and send them to you.

Thanks for the thought provoking conversation, I hope there are more to 
follow.

-- 
----------------
Ronald P. Reck
Direct Line 	(360) 488-1082

Received on Friday, 26 June 2009 15:33:11 UTC