Personalization and Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing - Resolving the Conflict by Legally Binding Commitments

Ubiquitous computing technologies (UC) open up new possibilities for stationary retail as well as for e-commerce to realize personalized services. Customer acceptance of such services is generally put at risk because the potential quantity and quality of data collected poses new threats to privacy. Based on economic agency theory, this paper discusses legally binding commitments of the retailer as a promising approach to actively oppose this privacy problem. The analysis indicates that an adoption of this strategy is only rational for "honest" retailers and thus provides an effective possibility to distinguish them from "dishonest" ones. The success of this approach is dependent on an effective provision of "privacy evidences" proving compliance as well as non-compliance. In regard to computer science, the provision of such evidences is discussed as a challenge to a new kind of privacy-enhancing technologies.