Abstract
Existing technical and legal definitions of identification and closely related privacy concepts show a confused and often circular semantics, in particular when applied to a digital environment. We examine the ontology of digital identification in the wider context of privacy. We begin with a formal definition of the ‘identical’ relation between 2 nyms and from this we derive a quantifiable notion of identification based on linkability and its opposite, anonymity. We base our logical model on a 3 layered semantic model theory. The results of this modeling show the context dependence of identification. Identification has meaning only in relation to a set of individuals known as the anonymity set, and an existing knowledge base of facts about these individuals.
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Hogben, G., Wilikens, M., Vakalis, I. (2003). On the Ontology of Digital Identification. In: Meersman, R., Tari, Z. (eds) On The Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2003: OTM 2003 Workshops. OTM 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2889. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39962-9_62
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39962-9_62
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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