Trust and privacy in the future internet—a research perspective

With the proliferation of networked electronic communication came daunting capabilities to collect, process, combine and store data, resulting in hithertounseen transformational pressure on the concepts of trust, security and privacy as weknow them. The Future Internet will bring about a world where real life willintegrate physical and digital life. Technology development for data linking andmining, together with unseen data collection, will lead to unwarranted access topersonal data, and hence, privacy intrusion. Trust and identity lie at the basis ofmany human interactions and transactions, and societies have developed legitimateconcern for privacy being essential for freedom and creativity. The burgeoningdevelopment of the Information Society, particularly during the past fifteen years, transcended the societal readiness to respond to the transformational change evokedby ICT. We have reached the eleventh hour for the preservation of trust and privacyas elements that can be transposed into our digital future. Europe has been at theforefront in recognizing the importance of privacy protection in relation to digitaldata, witness the advanced European legislation in this domain. The EuropeanCommission recognizes that appropriate measures need to combine technologydevelopment with legal means, user awareness and tools supporting data controllersto comply with law in an accountable and transparent way, and that empower userswith a controlling stake in managing their personal data. Activities are underway atmany levels. European RTD programmes play their role in supporting research intrustworthy ICT, privacy enhancing technologies, privacy-by-design in service layersas well as in networks, enabling technologies such as cryptography, and ingeneralized frameworks for trust and privacy-protective identity management