A Multidisciplinary Definition of Privacy Labels: The Story of Princess Privacy and the Seven Helpers

TL;DR

This paper proposes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary framework for Privacy Labeling, using storytelling metaphors to define its traits, identify open problems, and suggest approaches for implementation and future research.

Contribution

It offers a novel, multidisciplinary definition of Privacy Labeling, outlining its key traits, stakeholder needs, open challenges, and potential approaches for development and management.

Findings

Defines Privacy Labeling from seven perspectives

Identifies open problems and potential traits of PL

Proposes three approaches for establishing PL

Abstract

Privacy is currently in distress and in need of rescue, much like princesses in the all-familiar fairytales. We employ storytelling and metaphors from fairytales to make reader-friendly and streamline our arguments about how a complex concept of Privacy Labeling (the 'knight in shining armor') can be a solution to the current state of Privacy (the 'princess in distress'). We give a precise definition of Privacy Labeling (PL), painting a panoptic portrait from seven different perspectives (the 'seven helpers'): Business, Legal, Regulatory, Usability and Human Factors, Educative, Technological, and Multidisciplinary. We describe a common vision, proposing several important 'traits of character' of PL as well as identifying 'undeveloped potentialities', i.e., open problems on which the community can focus. More specifically, this position paper identifies the stakeholders of the PL and their needs with regard to privacy, describing how PL should be and look like in order to address these needs. Throughout the paper, we highlight goals, characteristics, open problems, and starting points for creating, what we consider to be, the ideal PL. In the end we present three approaches to establish and manage PL, through: self-evaluations, certifications, or community endeavors. Based on these, we sketch a roadmap for future developments.