Enforcing Data Privacy in the Age of Google Glass

Abstract

While in many cases wearable devices (involving the incorporation of computers/electronics into clothing and accessories) using all kind of different sensors may enhance our live, there is one big downside: the many privacy issues that spring out of the widespread use of wearable technology.

Here, it is necessary to distinguish between two cases: In the first case, one considers the privacy of data that a person captures about himself (quantified-self, i.e. self- tracking). The person wants to protect the data from unauthorized access or manipulation or would like to release its own data in a controlled manner. On the other side one considers the scenario that the person is captured by wearable devices of other persons, often without his/her consent or knowledge (e.g. someone films you with Google glass). We focus on this second case.

In an ideal world, every individual can formulate his/her requirements on data privacy in the context of wearable devices in a simple and efficient way which would automatically be read, respected and implemented by capturing devices (e.g. if you define that you do not want to be captured during your exercises, Google glass should not be able to film you in the gym).

Here we discuss new approaches to formulate and enforce appropriate data privacy policies. An important point is to consider the individual and situation-based context of the person exposed to someone else’s sensors. We propose simple technologies that could easily be used by any person to indicate his/her requirements to capturing devices and we describe components of wearable devices, which should guarantee the compliance against the situation-based requirements.