Context and End-User Privacy Policies in Web Service-Based Applications

Abstract

Privacy protection plays a vital role in pervasive and web environments, where users contact applications and services that may require access to their sensitive data. The current legislation, such as the recent European General Data Protection Regulation, is putting more emphasis on user protection and on placing users in the center of privacy choices. SOAP (simple object access protocol)-based and RESTful services may require access to sensitive data for their proper functioning, but users should be able to express their preferences on what should and should not be accessed. In this chapter, the above issues are discussed and a solution is presented for reconciling user preferences expressed in privacy policies and the service data needs tailored to SOAP-based services. A use example is provided and the main open issues providing directions for future research are discussed.