User Privacy Policy Model Computer Science Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Esma Aimeur introduced the User Privacy Policy Model (UPP). UPP is a privacy model which enables its users to control who access their data.

To understand UPP, Aimeur et. Al. in (1) introduced a framework to the social networking sites which are: user privacy concern, profile viewers, privacy levels and tracking levels.

The user privacy concern was split into three different categories. The first category is security which is a major concern of social networking sites that deals with user’s security risks such as identity theft and impersonation, hackers, phishing and many others that may harm the user’s data and information. The second category is reputation and credibility which involves the reputation of the user both online and in the real world, since bad reputation online will lead to affecting the credibility of this user in the society or at work. The third category is profiling which involves product companies building profiles on users from social network information found online without the user’s knowledge in order to sell them products.

Almost everyone now uses social networks; therefore, we have variety of users. This variety of users leads to different concerns regarding the privacy. Aimeur et al. (1) proposed four different types of privacy settings regarding the data of the user which are: Healthy data, Harmless data, Harmful data and Poisonous data. According to (1), the types of data are explained as following:

Healthy Data: information, if shared, would return no harm to the user or even track him down such as nickname, music interest and other similar data.

Harmless Data: data, if shared, may contain data that helps in profiling for companies that market products. Such information like religion, gender, and interests.

Harmful Data: information and pictures that belong to the user that, if shared, may lead to bad reputation and credibility.

Poisonous Data: data that belong to the user, if shared, may lead to security risks. Such information like user’s home address, phone number and other similar information.

After the data partitioning, allowing who can access the different types of data must be categorized into different groups of people depending on the relationship between the user and the friends he has on his social network site, and according to the trust he has. In Aimeur et. Al. (1), the people in the user’s social network site is also divided into four different groups which are: Best friend, Normal friend, Casual friend, and Visitors.

Best Friends: people who are considered the closest to the user such as parents or best friends.

Normal Friends: people who are considered friends with the user but not necessarily close such as relatives and groups of friends.

Casual Friends: people who are considered as somewhat strangers to the user yet known, like people the user met twice or friends of friends.

Visitors: people who are strangers to the user. These people are not necessarily in the friends list.

After briefly going through the privacy settings and explaining the user groups; UPP model discusses the privacy levels that the user can choose from in order to have privacy setting to his social network page. The privacy levels are split into four types: No privacy, Soft privacy, Hard privacy, and Full privacy. Each of these levels has its own rules on each group of users. The rules are made in order to read the data sets.

No Privacy Rules

Best friends can view all types of data set.

Normal friends can view all types of data set.

Casual friends can view all types of data set.

Visitors can view all types of data set.

Soft Privacy Rules

Best friends can view all types of data set.

Normal friends can view Healthy data, Harmless data, Harmful Data but cannot view Poisonous data.

Casual friends can view Healthy data, Harmless data, Harmful Data but cannot view Poisonous data.

Visitors can view Healthy data and Harmless data, but cannot view Harmful Data and Poisonous data.

Hard Privacy Rules

Best friends can view all types of data set.

Normal friends can view Healthy data, Harmless data, Harmful Data but cannot view Poisonous data.

Casual friends can view Healthy data and Harmless data, but cannot view Harmful Data and Poisonous data.

Visitors can view Healthy data but cannot view Harmless data, Harmful Data and Poisonous data.

Full Privacy Rules

Best friends can view all types of data set.

Normal friends can view Healthy data and Harmless data, but cannot view Harmful Data and Poisonous data.

Casual friends can view Healthy data and Harmless data, but cannot view Harmful Data and Poisonous data.

Visitors cannot view any type of data set.

Privacy Settings

Privacy Levels

Healthy Data

Harmless Data

Harmful Data

Poisonous Data

No Privacy

Best Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Normal Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Casual Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Visitors

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Soft Privacy

Best Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Normal Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Casual Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Visitors

Yes

Yes

No

No

Hard Privacy

Best Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Normal Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Casual Friends

Yes

Yes

No

No

Visitors

Yes

No

No

No

Full Privacy

Best Friends

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Normal Friends

Yes

Yes

No

No

Casual Friends

Yes

Yes

No

No

Visitors

No

No

No

No

3.1 User Privacy Policy Model Implementation

In order to implement UPP model,

Table 1 Privacy set

Privacy Data Set

Description

PrivacyDS

Privacy Data Set

NoP

No Privacy Data Set

SoftP

Soft Privacy Data Set

HardP

Hard Privacy Data Set

FullP

Full Privacy Data Set

Privacy Data Sets table

No Privacy Data Set

Description

Soft Privacy Data Set

Description

NoPHealthyD

No Privacy Healthy Data

SoftPHealthyD

Soft Privacy Healthy Data

NoPHarmlessD

No Privacy Harmless Data

SoftPHarmlessD

Soft Privacy Harmless Data

NoPHarmfulD

No Privacy Harmful Data

SoftPHarmfulD

Soft Privacy Harmful Data

NoPPoisonousD

No Privacy Poisonous Data

SoftPPoisonousD

Soft Privacy Poisonous Data

Hard Privacy Data Set

Description

Full Privacy Data Set

Description

HardPHealthyD

Hard Privacy Healthy Data

FullPHealthyD

Full Privacy Healthy Data

HardPHarmlessD

Hard Privacy Harmless Data

FullPHarmlessD

Full Privacy Harmless Data

HardPHarmfulD

Hard Privacy Harmful Data

FullPHarmfulD

Full Privacy Harmful Data

HardPPoisonousD

Hard Privacy Poisonous Data

FullPPoisonousD

Full Privacy Poisonous Data

Users group set

Users Group Set

Description

Nusers

No Privacy User group

Susers

Soft Privacy User group

Husers

Hard Privacy User group

Fusers

Full Privacy User group

Users table

No Privacy Users Group

Description

Soft Privacy Users Group

Description

NBF

No Privacy Best Friend

SBF

Soft Privacy Best Friend

NNF

No Privacy Normal Friend

SNF

Soft Privacy Normal Friend

NCF

No Privacy Casual Friend

SCF

Soft Privacy Casual Friend

NV

No Privacy Visitor

SV

Soft Privacy Visitor

Hard Privacy Users Group

Description

Full Privacy Users Group

Description

HBF

Hard Privacy Best Friend

FBF

Full Privacy Best Friend

HNF

Hard Privacy Normal Friend

FNF

Full Privacy Normal Friend

HCF

Hard Privacy Casual Friend

FCF

Full Privacy Casual Friend

HV

Hard Privacy Visitor

FV

Full Privacy Visitor

The privacy model is represented using Alloy language and complied using Alloy analyzer.