Raymond Morel 4007 days ago
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Starting date: March 2005
Duration: 12 months
Objective:The objective of this project is to develop a model / framework in order to provide a more systematic view on the blurring boundaries of public and private digital space, and thus assist towards tackling concerns of privacy, security and identity of people’s online activities. While appropriately protecting privacy and personal data in the digital world, this model will promote free expression and enhance the collaboration and communication in public places of the digital world.
Description: Considering that people have over the years mastered the art of using distance as a tool to control the amount and type of personal data they wanted to share, IPTS has set out to study the concept of Digital Territories (DT) and assess the likelihood that it may be used to balance security and privacy needs in the digital world. At first we tried to envision specific situations of personal data in a home environment, which is continuously stretched through social needs of the constituting members. This resulted in the study of Virtual Residence, where measures to adequately protect personal data were studied, even if these were stored in servers controlled by third parties. Then the concept of the bubble was created to denote a personal info-sphere surrounding the individual, which is used to restrict and / or allow the information coming in or going out of it; based on the idea of the bubble, the concept of DT started to emerge. Consequently, a study on DT was outsourced to Atlantis Consulting and the results were published in a report which was finalised in April 2006.
Further to this study, additional research was conducted on the concept of DT, this time in-house, especially considering the concepts of private and public space on the one hand and physical and digital space on the other and their interrelation, in order to further develop and evolve it. The results of this research were presented in an IPTS report, which is expected to be published by April 2007.
The DT concept / model may assist in understanding better the inter-relation between physical and digital space, as well as the type of data that need to be appropriately protected. It may thus contribute to shaping the requirements, definition, conception and development of specific security, trust and privacy technologies and infrastructures, as well as the policy framework needed for the future management of privacy and identity in the European Information Society.
Project Leader: Barbara Daskala and Ioannis Maghiros
ioannis.maghiros(at)ec.europa.eu