Privacy Technology: A Question of Trust

By Matt Hamblen

October 14, 2002 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Researchers developing tools to preserve data privacy agree that it might be hard to get the public to accept that the tools they are developing are helpful and truly devoted to privacy. Many people, worried about voracious marketers or Big Brother, might think just the opposite.
"People really paranoid about privacy are going to look at new tools and say, 'I don't believe that,'" says Chris Clifton, an associate professor of computer science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.
Another expert, professor Latanya Sweeney at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says that coming tools can "absolutely" protect personal privacy even with the large number of databases and automated systems deployed worldwide. But she argues that "technology alone cannot provide the total answer." Tools such as anonymity technology must "weave together" with comprehensive public policy to provide solutions, she adds.
"Our laws, policies and practices don't understand the nature of the impact technology has had on the loss of privacy," Sweeney says. "Changes tend to be slow and reactionary, rather than based on fundamental principles. This gets exacerbated because laws change as a function of years and technology as a function of months."
At IBM's Almaden Research Center, researcher Rakesh Agrawal is developing tools for randomizing private data, and he's sensitive to possible concerns from privacy activists that his efforts could be taken as just a way to get more personal data for use by corporate marketing departments and others.
"By enhancing what you can do technically, you might reduce the need for legislation," Agrawal argues. "We are trying to protect the interests of the user and at the same time allow businesses to get value out of [marketing] data. E-commerce might not take off unless we address the privacy concerns properly."
Sweeney says Americans can't afford to concede that privacy is dead. If medical privacy weren't truly possible, it would mean companies might not hire the ill, creating a costly burden on society. Sweeney says tools she has developed give scientific guarantees of anonymity "while still making sure the data remain practically useful for worthy purposes, such as drug research."

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