Link Before You Share: Managing Privacy Policies through Blockchain

With the advent of numerous online content providers, utilities and applications, each with their own specific version of privacy policies and its associated overhead, it is becoming increasingly difficult for concerned users to manage and track the confidential information that they share with the providers. Users consent to providers to gather and share their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). We have developed a novel framework to automatically track details about how a users' PII data is stored, used and shared by the provider. We have integrated our Data Privacy ontology with the properties of blockchain, to develop an automated access control and audit mechanism that enforces users' data privacy policies when sharing their data across third parties. We have also validated this framework by implementing a working system LinkShare. In this paper, we describe our framework on detail along with the LinkShare system. Our approach can be adopted by Big Data users to automatically apply their privacy policy on data operations and track the flow of that data across various stakeholders.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Published in: 4th International Workshop on Privacy and Security of Big Data (PSBD 2017) in conjunction with 2017 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (IEEE BigData 2017) December 14, 2017, Boston, MA, US

Trustworthy Federated Learning: A Survey

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a significant advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling collaborative model training across distributed devices while maintaining data privacy. As the importance of FL increases, addressing trustworthiness issues in its various aspects becomes crucial. In this survey, we provide an extensive overview of the current state of Trustworthy FL, exploring existing solutions and well-defined pillars relevant to Trustworthy . Despite the growth in literature on trustworthy centralized Machine Learning (ML)/Deep Learning (DL), further efforts are necessary to identify trustworthiness pillars and evaluation metrics specific to FL models, as well as to develop solutions for computing trustworthiness levels. We propose a taxonomy that encompasses three main pillars: Interpretability, Fairness, and Security & Privacy. Each pillar represents a dimension of trust, further broken down into different notions. Our survey covers trustworthiness challenges at every level in FL settings. We present a comprehensive architecture of Trustworthy FL, addressing the fundamental principles underlying the concept, and offer an in-depth analysis of trust assessment mechanisms. In conclusion, we identify key research challenges related to every aspect of Trustworthy FL and suggest future research directions. This comprehensive survey serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working on the development and implementation of Trustworthy FL systems, contributing to a more secure and reliable AI landscape.Comment: 45 Pages, 8 Figures, 9 Table

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Beyond oracles – a critical look at real-world blockchains

This thesis intends to provide answers to the following questions: 1) What is the oracle problem, and how do the limitations of oracles affect different real-world applications? 2) What are the characteristics of the portion of the literature that leaves the oracle problem unaddressed? 3) Who are the main contributors to solving the oracle problem, and which issues are they focusing on? 4) How can the oracle problem be overcome in real-world applications? The first chapter aims to answer the first question through a literature review of the most current papers published in the field, bringing clarity to the blockchain oracle problem by discussing its effects in some of the most promising real-world blockchain applications. Thus, the chapter investigates the sectors of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), healthcare, supply chains, academic records, resource management, and law. By comparing the different applications, the review reveals that heterogeneous issues arise depending on the sector. The analysis supports the view that the more trusted a system is, the less the oracle problem has an impact. The second chapter presents the results of a systematic review intended to highlight the state-of-the-art of real-world blockchain applications using the oracle problem as a lens of analysis. Academic papers proposing real-world blockchain applications were reviewed to see if the authors considered the oracle’s role in the applications and related issues. The results found that almost 90% of the inspected literature neglected the role of oracles, thereby proposing incomplete or irreproducible projects. Through a bibliometric analysis, the third chapter sheds light on the institutions and authors that are actively contributing to the literature on oracles and promoting progress and cooperation. The study shows that, although there is still a lack of collaboration worldwide, there are dedicated authors and institutions working toward a similar and beneficial cause. The results also make it clear that most areas of oracle research are poorly addressed, with some remaining untouched. The fourth and last chapter focuses on a case study of a dairy company operating in the northeast region of Italy. The company applied blockchain technology to support the traceability of their products worldwide, and the study investigated the benefits of their innovation from the point of view of sustainability. The study also considers the role of oracle management, as it is a critical aspect of a blockchain-based project. Thus, the relationship between the company, the blockchain oracle, and the supervising authority is discussed, offering insight into how sustainable innovations can positively impact supply chain management. This work as a whole aims to shed light on blockchain oracles as an academic area of research, explaining why the study of oracles should be considered the backbone of blockchain literature development