Human-Computer Interaction

Introduction

An important critical success factor for PRIME technology will be userfriendly and intelligible user interfaces that convey and enhance trust. Such user interfaces have to meet challenges such as:

• User-friendly representation of complex PET concepts: PRIME and other privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) are based on technical concepts or constructs such as pseudonyms, unlinkability, anonymous credentials as well as policy negotiation and management that are unfamiliar to many end users and often do not fit their mental pictures of what is technically feasible. Informational self-determination means that users are able to decide how their personal data are used. This should not necessarily have to involve determining how technicalities such as pseudonymisation are carried out. From a usability perspective, such technicalities should on the contrary rather be invisible to the users. However, when it comes to understanding the risk of being identified across different interactions with one or several service providers, some sort of notion about digital identity must be understood by the user.

• Provision of security: The PRIME user interfaces also need to be “secure” in the sense that they should have reasonable countermeasures against common types of Internet fraud attacks, such as phishing and spoofing.