In this research end user privacy preferences regarding online resources web and mobile applications and websites are investigated and design requirements needed for the development of a privacy focused, privacy enhancing technology tool are identified, as derived from the literature, the crowd source based solution is the most appealing solution so it is fully analyzed according to our research main focus.

Anonymous communications networks help to solve the real and important problem of enabling users to communicate privately over the Internet. However, by doing so, they also introduce an entirely new problem: How can service providers on the Internet---such as websites, IRC networks and mail servers---allow anonymous access while protecting themselves against abuse by misbehaving anonymous users? Recent research efforts have focused on using anonymous blacklisting systems (also known as anonymous revocation systems) to solve this problem. As opposed to revocable anonymity systems, which enable some trusted third party to deanonymize users, anonymous blacklisting systems provide a way for users to authenticate anonymously with a service provider, while enabling the service provider to revoke access from individual misbehaving anonymous users without revealing their identities. The literature contains several anonymous blacklisting systems, many of which are impractical for real-world deployment. In 2006, however, Tsang et al. proposed Nymble, which solves the anonymous blacklisting problem very efficiently using trusted third parties. Nymble has inspired a number of subsequent anonymous blacklisting systems. Some of these use fundamentally different approaches to accomplish what Nymble does without using third parties at all; so far, these proposals have all suffered from serious performance and scalability problems. Other systems build on the Nymble framework to reduce Nymble's trust assumptions while maintaining its highly efficient design. The primary contribution of this thesis is a new anonymous blacklisting system built on the Nymble framework---a nimbler version of Nymble---called Nymbler. We propose several enhancements to the Nymble framework that facilitate the construction of a scheme that minimizes trust in third parties. We then propose a new set of security and privacy properties that anonymous blacklisting systems should possess to protect: 1) users' privacy against malicious service providers and third parties (including other malicious users), and 2) service providers against abuse by malicious users. We also propose a set of performance requirements that anonymous blacklisting systems should meet to maximize their potential for real-world adoption, and formally define some optional features in the anonymous blacklisting systems literature. We then present Nymbler, which improves on existing Nymble-like systems by reducing the level of trust placed in third parties, while simultaneously providing stronger privacy guarantees and some new functionality. It avoids dependence on trusted hardware and unreasonable assumptions about non-collusion between trusted third parties. We have implemented all key components of Nymbler, and our measurements indicate that the system is highly practical. Our system solves several open problems in the anonymous blacklisting systems literature, and makes use of some new cryptographic constructions that are likely to be of independent theoretical interest.

Anonymous communications networks help to solve the real and important problem of enabling users to communicate privately over the Internet. However, by doing so, they also introduce an entirely new problem: How can service providers on the Internet---such as websites, IRC networks and mail servers---allow anonymous access while protecting themselves against abuse by misbehaving anonymous users? Recent research efforts have focused on using anonymous blacklisting systems (also known as anonymous revocation systems) to solve this problem. As opposed to revocable anonymity systems, which enable some trusted third party to deanonymize users, anonymous blacklisting systems provide a way for users to authenticate anonymously with a service provider, while enabling the service provider to revoke access from individual misbehaving anonymous users without revealing their identities. The literature contains several anonymous blacklisting systems, many of which are impractical for real-world deployment. In 2006, however, Tsang et al. proposed Nymble, which solves the anonymous blacklisting problem very efficiently using trusted third parties. Nymble has inspired a number of subsequent anonymous blacklisting systems. Some of these use fundamentally different approaches to accomplish what Nymble does without using third parties at all; so far, these proposals have all suffered from serious performance and scalability problems. Other systems build on the Nymble framework to reduce Nymble's trust assumptions while maintaining its highly efficient design. The primary contribution of this thesis is a new anonymous blacklisting system built on the Nymble framework---a nimbler version of Nymble---called Nymbler. We propose several enhancements to the Nymble framework that facilitate the construction of a scheme that minimizes trust in third parties. We then propose a new set of security and privacy properties that anonymous blacklisting systems should possess to protect: 1) users' privacy against malicious service providers and third parties (including other malicious users), and 2) service providers against abuse by malicious users. We also propose a set of performance requirements that anonymous blacklisting systems should meet to maximize their potential for real-world adoption, and formally define some optional features in the anonymous blacklisting systems literature. We then present Nymbler, which improves on existing Nymble-like systems by reducing the level of trust placed in third parties, while simultaneously providing stronger privacy guarantees and some new functionality. It avoids dependence on trusted hardware and unreasonable assumptions about non-collusion between trusted third parties. We have implemented all key components of Nymbler, and our measurements indicate that the system is highly practical. Our system solves several open problems in the anonymous blacklisting systems literature, and makes use of some new cryptographic constructions that are likely to be of independent theoretical interest.

Personal data is often disclosed with every registration, sharing, or request of an online service. With the increased usage of things connected to the Internet, users' information being collected and stored, the risks related to unknowingly sharing personal data increases. Sharing of personal information is a sensitive subject and can hurt people’s assets, dignity, personal integrity and other social aspects. In general, users’ concerns have grown regarding protecting their personal information which has led to the development of multiple privacy-oriented systems. In scenarios where users are logging onto a website or system, they rarely notice, understand or have desire to read the conditions to which they are implicitly agreeing. These systems are often referred to as identity management systems or single sign-on systems. Recent studies have shown that users are not aware of what data transactions take place by using various authentication solutions. It is critical for these types of system dealing with privacy that researchers examine users' understanding of the concepts through interface design. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usability and user awareness of data transactions for identity management systems on mobile devices by constructing and evaluating different design concepts. Therefore, four different mobile prototypes were designed (called CREDENTIAL Wallet) and explored to measure the usability and also the user awareness of users’ disclosures. 20 usability tests were conducted per prototype. Multiple conclusions can be drawn from this study. The findings showed that the drag-and-drop prototype scored a high user awareness score in terms of participants remembering their shared data and having a good idea of them not sharing more data than they had actually shared. Consequently, the drag-and-drop prototype achieved the highest usability result. A prototype that utilized swiping was created to fit the mobile medium. The prototype showed the highest user awareness score in the context of participants stating what data they had shared. However, people using the swiping prototype thought they were sharing more data than they actually were. Data show that users have an incorrect mental model of the sharing of their fingerprint pattern. Finally, the writing concerns recommendations and challenges of identity management systems – e.g. the importance of tutorial screens. Future studies within the CREDENTIAL project are already underway concerning users' incorrect mental model of sharing fingerprint to the service provider side. / CREDENTIAL

Users have limited knowledge and control over their data, while needing personalization-based services that are requesting their data. The Automated Privacy Negotiation Agent (APNA) model is brought up as a solution by assisting users’ privacy management with less effort, but more accurate options. To bring insights for APNA to gather requirements from different users, this research described how users have been managing their privacy settings and consenting, and their preferences when it comes to their data processing through semi-structured interviews. We conducted interviews on 11 participants with different levels of motivation and knowledge to enhance privacy, from ages 21 to 35, living in Jönköping, Sweden. By thematic analysis we identified and described 5 types of behaviour and how users have articulated their considerations behind each of the 5 types of behaviour. We found 22 privacy preferences of users when it comes to how their data should be collected, stored, and used. These could be considered as required options to be implemented in the preference set-up.

The amount of personal identifiable information that people distribute over different online services has grown rapidly and considerably over the last decades. This has led to increased probabilities for identity theft, profiling and linkability attacks, which can in turn not only result in a threat to people’s personal dignity, finances, and many other aspects of their lives, but also to societies in general. Methods and tools for securing people’s online activities and protecting their privacy on the Internet, so called Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), are being designed and developed. However, these technologies are often seen by ordinary users as complicated and disruptive of their primary tasks.   In this licentiate thesis, I investigate the usability aspects of three main privacy and security enhancing mechanisms. These mechanisms have the goal of helping and encouraging users to protect their privacy on the Internet as they engage in some of the steps necessary to complete a digital transaction. The three mechanisms, which have been investigated within the scope of different research projects, comprise of (1) graphical visualizations of service providers’ privacy policies and user-friendly management and matching of users’ privacy preferences “on the fly”, (2) methods for helping users create appropriate mental models of the data minimization property of anonymous credentials, and (3) employing touch-screen biometrics as a method to authenticate users into mobile devices and verify their identities during a digital transaction.   Results from these investigations suggest that these mechanisms can make digital transactions privacy-friendly and secure while at the same time delivering convenience and usability for ordinary users.

No description available.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new technology which allows people to identify objects automatically but there is a suspicion that, if people are tracked, their privacy may be infringed. This raises questions about how far this technology is acceptable and how privacy should be protected. It is also initiated a discussion involving a wide range of technical, philosophical, political, social, cultural, and economical aspects. There is also a need to consider the ethical and theological perspectives. This dissertation takes all its relevant directions from a Judeo-Christian theological perspective. On one side the use of technology is considered, and on the other side the value of privacy, its infringements and protection are investigated. According to Jewish and Christian understanding human dignity has to be respected including the right to privacy. As a consequence of this RFID may only used for applications that do not infringe this right. This conclusion, however, is not limited to RFID; it will be relevant for other, future surveillance technologies as well. / Philosophy & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological ethics)

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new technology which allows people to identify objects automatically but there is a suspicion that, if people are tracked, their privacy may be infringed. This raises questions about how far this technology is acceptable and how privacy should be protected. It is also initiated a discussion involving a wide range of technical, philosophical, political, social, cultural, and economical aspects. There is also a need to consider the ethical and theological perspectives. This dissertation takes all its relevant directions from a Judeo-Christian theological perspective. On one side the use of technology is considered, and on the other side the value of privacy, its infringements and protection are investigated. According to Jewish and Christian understanding human dignity has to be respected including the right to privacy. As a consequence of this RFID may only used for applications that do not infringe this right. This conclusion, however, is not limited to RFID; it will be relevant for other, future surveillance technologies as well. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Theological ethics)

When you are browsing websites, third-party resources record your online habits; such tracking can be considered an invasion of privacy. It was previously unknown how many third-party resources, trackers and tracker companies are present in the different classes of websites chosen: globally popular websites, random samples of .se/.dk/.com/.net domains and curated lists of websites of public interest in Sweden. The in-browser HTTP/HTTPS traffic was recorded while downloading over 150,000 websites, allowing comparison of HTTPS adaption and third-party tracking within and across the different classes of websites. The data shows that known third-party resources including known trackers are present on over 90% of most classes, that third-party hosted content such as video, scripts and fonts make up a large portion of the known trackers seen on a typical website and that tracking is just as prevalent on secure as insecure sites. Observations include that Google is the most widespread tracker organization by far, that content is being served by known trackers may suggest that trackers are moving to providing services to the end user to avoid being blocked by privacy tools and ad blockers, and that the small difference in tracking between using HTTP and HTTPS connections may suggest that users are given a false sense of privacy when using HTTPS. / <p>Source code, datasets, and a video recording of the presentation is available on the master's thesis website.</p>