security in pervasive computing environments

Bruce Sterling, When Blobjects Rule The Earth, SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, 2004

retreived 18/08/08, from http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/401-450/00422_the_spime.html

So, how do you deal with privacy concerns in a pervasive computing environment?

The Virtual Wall model

Virtual Walls: Protecting Digital Privacy in Pervasive Environments

A. Kapadia, T. Henderson, J.J. Fielding & David KotzProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Pervasive Computing, number 4480 in LNCS, pages 162-

179, Toronto, Canada, May 2007. Springer-Verlag.

Most people can use this system!The system works, in the context it was created

But there are some problems!

Detail

Complexity

Limited Application

Interrupting User

Though the traces are not stored for long, they are centrally administered. This brings back Big Brother

fears!

Also, users actively dislike the idea of systems 'following them around', especially if they could be

compromised.

The Place Lab Challenge

✗ A challenge paper to the academic community✗ brief overview of a location-aware network✗ implementation and maintenance schemes✗ security discussion

Challenge: Ubiquitous Location-Aware Computing and the Place Lab Initiative.

B.N. Schilit, A. LaMarca, G. Borriello, W.G. Griswold, D.McDonald, E. Lazowska, A. Balachandran, J.I. Hong, & V. Iverson,

Proceedings of the ACM International Workshop on Wireless Mobile Applications and Services on WLAN (WMASH 2003), 29-35.

Client-end location determination!

Per-use/per-application privacy selectors

Fine-grained privacy levels

On the other hand, you need access to a (possibly quite large) database, in order to use the service.

There are also potential problems with Access Points which physically move.

Putting people in their place: an anonymous and privacy-sensitive approach to collecting sensed data in

location-based applicationsK. P. Tang, P. Keyani, J. Fogarty & J. I. Hong

Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, pages 93-102, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 2006

Location-centric data

Client-side computing

Ground-up security/privacy