Realistic Threats to Self-Enforcing Privacy

A recent privacy protocol for secure e-polls aims at en-suring the submitting individuals that the pollster will pre-serve the privacy of their submitted preferences. Otherwise the individuals can indict the pollster, provided that the poll-ster participates actively in this phase. The analysis of the protocol in a realistic threat model denounces that a ma-licious pollster that abuses the private preferences by dis-closure will arguably not help out during its own indict-ment. Therefore, the protocol ensures insufficient fairness among their participants because it gives the pollster some advantage over the individuals. Two variant protocols are introduced and analysed in the same threat model — one is found to move the advantage over the individuals, the other is found to achieve a satisfactory level of fairness

Protecting Information Privacy

This report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (the Commission) examines the threats to information privacy that have emerged in recent years, focusing on the activities of the state. It argues that current privacy laws and regulation do not adequately uphold human rights, and that fundamental reform is required. It identifies two principal areas of concern: the state’s handling of personal data, and the use of surveillance by public bodies. The central finding of this report is that the existing approach to the protection of information privacy in the UK is fundamentally flawed, and that there is a pressing need for widespread legislative reform in order to ensure that the rights contained in Article 8 are respected. The report argues for the establishment of a number of key ‘privacy principles’ that can be used to guide future legal reforms and the development of sector-specific regulation. The right to privacy is at risk of being eroded by the growing demand for information by government and the private sector. Unless we start to reform the law and build a regulatory system capable of protecting information privacy, we may soon find that it is a thing of the past