Active data-centric framework for data protection in cloud environment

Cloud computing is an emerging evolutionary computing model that provides highly scalable services over highspeed Internet on a pay-as-usage model. However, cloud-based solutions still have not been widely deployed in some sensitive areas, such as banking and healthcare. The lack of widespread development is related to users’ concern that their confidential data or privacy would leak out in the cloud’s outsourced environment. To address this problem, we propose a novel active data-centric framework to ultimately improve the transparency and accountability of actual usage of the users’ data in cloud. Our data-centric framework emphasizes “active” feature which packages the raw data with active properties that enforce data usage with active defending and protection capability. To achieve the active scheme, we devise the Triggerable Data File Structure (TDFS). Moreover, we employ the zero-knowledge proof scheme to verify the request’s identification without revealing any vital information. Our experimental outcomes demonstrate the efficiency, dependability, and scalability of our framework.

Privacy By Design e Data Protection Officer: aspetti normativi e buone prassi nel trattamento dei dati personali.

La Tesi tratta i concetti di Privacy e Protezione dei Dati personali, contestualizzandone il quadro normativo e tecnologico con particolare riferimento ai contesti emergenti rappresentati – per un verso – dalla proposta di nuovo Regolamento generale sulla protezione dei dati personali (redatto dal Parlamento Europeo e dal Consiglio dell’Unione Europea), – per un altro – dalla metodologia di progettazione del Privacy by Design e – per entrambi – dalla previsione di un nuovo attore: il responsabile per la protezione dei dati personali (Privacy Officer). L’elaborato si articola su tre parti oltre introduzione, conclusioni e riferimenti bibliografici. La prima parte descrive il concetto di privacy e le relative minacce e contromisure (tradizionali ed emergenti) con riferimento ai contesti di gestione (aziendale e Big Data) e al quadro normativo vigente. La seconda Parte illustra in dettaglio i principi e le prassi del Privacy by Design e la figura del Privacy Officer formalmente riconosciuta dal novellato giuridico. La terza parte illustra il caso di studio nel quale vengono analizzate tramite una tabella comparativa minacce e contromisure rilevabili in un contesto aziendale.

Missing Links in the Proposed EU Data Protection Regulation and Cloud Computing Scenarios: A Brief Overview

Applying location-focused data protection law within the context of a location-agnostic cloud computing framework is fraught with difficulties. While the Proposed EU Data Protection Regulation has introduced a lot of changes to the current data protection framework, the complexities of data processing in the cloud involve various layers and intermediaries of actors that have not been properly addressed. This leaves some gaps in the regulation when analyzed in cloud scenarios. This paper gives a brief overview of the relevant provisions of the regulation that will have an impact on cloud transactions and addresses the missing links. It is hoped that these loopholes will be reconsidered before the final version of the law is passed in order to avoid unintended consequences.

Online Personal Data Processing and EU Data Protection Reform. CEPS Task Force Report, April 2013

This report sheds light on the fundamental questions and underlying tensions between current policy objectives, compliance strategies and global trends in online personal data processing, assessing the existing and future framework in terms of effective regulation and public policy. Based on the discussions among the members of the CEPS Digital Forum and independent research carried out by the rapporteurs, policy conclusions are derived with the aim of making EU data protection policy more fit for purpose in today’s online technological context. This report constructively engages with the EU data protection framework, but does not provide a textual analysis of the EU data protection reform proposal as such.

What drives the European Parliament? The Case of the General Data Protection Regulation. Bruges Political Research Papers 47/2015.

This paper evaluates which factors influence the European Parliament’s decision-making, based on a case study: the 2012 proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation. Following a ‘competitive testing’ approach, six different hypotheses are successively challenged in order to explain why the EP adopted a fundamental rights- oriented position. The first three factors relate to the internal organization of the EP’s work, i.e. the role played by the lead committee, by the rapporteur and by secretariat officials. The last three factors are external-related, i.e. lobbying activities, outside events and institutional considerations. Based on the empirical findings, it is argued that even though the EP’s position is due to a range of various factors, some of them prove to be more relevant than others, in particular the rapporteur and lead committee’s roles. New institutionalism theories also provide a comprehensive explanation for the EP’s willingness to achieve a fundamental rights oriented outcome.

Report on data protection and privacy in seven selected states /

"US 84-10/8."

Data Protection and Packet Mode in the Distributed Information Measurement and Control System for Research in Physics

The present paper is devoted to creation of cryptographic data security and realization of the packet mode in the distributed information measurement and control system that implements methods of optical spectroscopy for plasma physics research and atomic collisions. This system gives a remote access to information and instrument resources within the Intranet/Internet networks. The system provides remote access to information and hardware resources for the natural sciences within the Intranet/Internet networks. The access to physical equipment is realized through the standard interface servers (PXI, CАМАC, and GPIB), the server providing access to Ethernet devices, and the communication server, which integrates the equipment servers into a uniform information system. The system is used to make research task in optical spectroscopy, as well as to support the process of education at the Department of Physics and Engineering of Petrozavodsk State University.

The Feasibility of Applying EU Data Protection Law to Biological Materials: Challenging ‘Data’ as Exclusively Informational

Though controversial the question of applying data protection laws to biological materials has only gotten a little attention in data privacy discourse. This article aims to contribute to this dearth by arguing that despite absence of positive intention from the architects to apply the EU Data privacy law to biological materials, a range of developments in Molecular Biology and nano-technology—usually mediated by advances in ICT—may provide persuasive grounds to do so. In addition, paucity of sufficient explication of key terms like ‘data/information’ in these legislations may fuel such tendency whereby laws originally intended for the informational world may end up applying to the biological world. The article also analyzes various predicaments that may arise from applying data privacy laws to biological materials. A focus is made on legislative sources at the EU level though national laws are relied on when pertinent.

Personal Data and Encryption in the European General Data Protection Regulation

Encryption of personal data is widely regarded as a privacy preserving technology which could potentially play a key role for the compliance of innovative IT technology within the European data protection law framework. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the new EU General Data Protection Regulation’s relevant provisions regarding encryption – such as those for anonymisation and pseudonymisation – and assess whether encryption can serve as an anonymisation technique, which can lead to the non-applicability of the GDPR. However, the provisions of the GDPR regarding the material scope of the Regulation still leave space for legal uncertainty when determining whether a data subject is identifiable or not. Therefore, we inter alia assess the Opinion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the dispute concerning whether a dynamic IP address can be considered as personal data, which may put an end to the dispute whether an absolute or a relative approach has to be used for the assessment of the identifiability of data subjects. Furthermore, we outline the issue of whether the anonymisation process itself constitutes a further processing of personal data which needs to have a legal basis in the GDPR. Finally, we give an overview of relevant encryption techniques and examine their impact upon the GDPR’s material scope.

An E-government Interoperability Platform Supporting Personal Data Protection Regulations

Public agencies are increasingly required to collaborate with each other in order to provide high-quality e-government services. This collaboration is usually based on the service-oriented approach and supported by interoperability platforms. Such platforms are specialized middleware-based infrastructures enabling the provision, discovery and invocation of interoperable software services. In turn, given that personal data handled by governments are often very sensitive, most governments have developed some sort of legislation focusing on data protection. This paper proposes solutions for monitoring and enforcing data protection laws within an E-government Interoperability Platform. In particular, the proposal addresses requirements posed by the Uruguayan Data Protection Law and the Uruguayan E-government Platform, although it can also be applied in similar scenarios. The solutions are based on well-known integration mechanisms (e.g. Enterprise Service Bus) as well as recognized security standards (e.g. eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) and were completely prototyped leveraging the SwitchYard ESB product.

Henkilötietojen siirrot Euroopan unionista kolmansiin maihin erityisesti Euroopan unionin tuomioistuimen tuomion C-362/14 Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner valossa

Tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää lukijalle, mistä syistä ja miten Euroopan unionin tietosuojainstrumentit – nykyinen tietosuojadirektiivi ja tuleva tietosuoja-asetus – asettavat rajoituksia EU:n kansalaisten henkilötietojen siirroille kolmansiin maihin kaupallisia tarkoituksia varten. Erityisen tarkastelun kohteena on henkilötietojen siirrot EU:n alueelta Yhdysvaltoihin mahdollistanut Safe Harbor-järjestelmä, jonka Euroopan unionin tuomioistuin katsoi pätemättömäksi asiassa C-362/14 Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner. Tutkimusaiheen eli henkilötietojen rajat ylittävien siirtojen ollessa kansainvälisen oikeuden ja tietosuojaoikeuden leikkauspisteessä on tutkimuksessa käytetty molempien oikeudenalojen asiantuntijoiden tutkimuksia lähteenä. Kansainvälisen oikeuden peruslähteenä on käytetty Brownlien teosta Principles of Public International Law (6. painos), jota vasten on peilattu tutkimusaihetta tarkemmin käsittelevää kirjallisuutta. Erityisesti on syytä nostaa esille Bygraven tietosuojaoikeutta kansainvälisessä kontekstissa käsittelevä Data Privacy Law: An International Perspective sekä Kunerin nimenomaisesti henkilötietojen kansainvälisiä siirtoja käsittelevä Transborder Data Flows and Data Privacy Law. Uusien teknologioiden myötä nopeasti kehittyvästä tutkimusilmiöstä ja oikeudenalasta johtuen tutkimuksessa on käytetty lähdemateriaaleina runsaasti aihepiiriä käsitteleviä artikkeleita arvostetuista julkaisuista, sekä EU:n tietosuojaviranomaisten ja YK:n raportteja virallislähteinä. Keskeiset tutkimustulokset osoittavat EU:n ja sen jäsenvaltioiden intressit henkilötietojen siirroissa sekä EU:n asettamien henkilötietojen siirtosääntelyiden vaikutukset kolmansiin maihin. Globaalin konsensuksen saavuttamisen koskien henkilötietojen kansainvälisiä siirtosääntelyitä arvioitiin olevan ainakin lähitulevaisuudessa epätodennäköistä. Nykyisten alueellisten sääntelyratkaisujen osalta todettiin Euroopan neuvoston yleissopimuksen No. 108 eniten osoittavan potentiaalia maailmanlaajuiselle implementoinnille. Lopuksi arvioitiin oikeudellisen pluralismin mallin puitteissa tarkoituksenmukaisia keinoja EU:n kansalaisten perusoikeuksina turvattujen yksityisyyden ja henkilötietojen suojan parantamiseksi. Tarkastelu osoittaa EU:n kansalaisten sekä näiden henkilötietoja käsittelevien ja siirtävien yritysten välillä olleen tiedollinen ja voimallinen epätasapaino, joka ilmenee yksilön tiedollisen itseautonomian ja suostumuksen merkityksen heikentymisenä, joskin EU:n vuonna 2018 voimaan astuva tietosuoja-asetus organisaatioiden vastuuta korostamalla pyrkii poistamaan tätä ongelmaa.