Pluto: A protocol for privacy management in electronic communities

Abstract

As computers become increasingly connected it is important to ensure that both legal and ethical guidelines are built into the network infrastructure. One key and often underdeveloped area is the management of private (or personal) information. In order for electronic communities to share privacy sensitive information it is important to understand the legal issues surrounding privacy and to design community tools to ensure that there is no unmanaged release of private information. The proposed Pluto protocol has been designed to work with existing privacy legislation to create a solution to managing privacy information for electronic communities; specifically the Pluto protocol was designed as a solution to the Canadian privacy guidelines detailed in "The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act". This thesis examines existing privacy legislation, explains the proposed Pluto protocol solution and concludes by examining performance evaluation through a proof-of-concept prototype.