Mark Jones on Privacy

In the presentation Sakimura states:

“Being able to act anonymously has great benefits on the privacy front in principle. However, what we have achieved is the situation where our personal data is in danger and good actors are easily tracked by bad actors. What we have is privacy for skilled bad actors and no privacy for the rest of us.  …  This is because we did not address the fundamental issue of accountability.  What we need is to re-establish the accountability of every participant within the ecosystem. ”

I think there is a false perception that more anonymity yields more privacy while actually the reverse is true.

There are two quotes that I captured from a site that appears to be defunct (www.privacilla.org) that guide my thinking…

Privacilla's Two-Part Definition of Privacy

http://www.privacilla.org/fundamentals/privacydefinition.html

“Privacy is the subjective condition a person experiences when two factors are in place. First, he or she must have the power to control information about him- or herself. Second, he or she must exercise that control consistent with his or her interests and values.”

http://www.privacilla.org/fundamentals/whatisprivacy.html

“While privacy is held up as one of our highest values, people also constantly share information about themselves by allowing others to see their faces, learn their names, learn what they own, and learn what they think. In fact, it is a desirable lack of privacy that allows people to interact with one another socially and in business. This does not mean that people should lose control over the information they want to keep private. It means that generalizations about privacy are almost always wrong.”

Without accountability there is no way for us to control our information online.  With anonymity there can be no accountability.

Identity, Trust, Privacy, and Accountability are all interdependent.

I agree that defining privacy is problematic, but part of this is because privacy is inherently subjective.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"privacy is a personal, subjective condition. One person cannot decide for another what his or her sense of privacy should be."
http://www.privacilla.org/fundamentals/whatisprivacy.html

"Privacy is the subjective condition a person experiences when two factors are in place. First, he or she must have the power to control information about him- or herself. Second, he or she must exercise that control consistent with his or her interests and values."
http://www.privacilla.org/fundamentals/privacydefinition.html

"While privacy is held up as one of our highest values, people also constantly share information about themselves by allowing others to see their faces, learn their names, learn what they own, and learn what they think. In fact, it is a desirable lack of privacy that allows people to interact with one another socially and in business."
http://www.privacilla.org/fundamentals/whatisprivacy.html

Many tout anonymity as the ultimate expression of privacy.  I disagree:  http://itpaonline.blogspot.com/2015/07/anonymity-enemy-of-privacy.html

To solve the problem of lack of attribute release we can't just focus on Privacy or just focus on Trust.  We certainly can't strive for anonymity.  This will only be solved when there is a balance between Identity, Trust, Privacy, and Accountability.

Attribute providers will release attributes when relying parties can be held accountable, and thus be trusted.
Privacy is achieved when users are able to hold providers and relying parties accountable for the handling of their personal information.
Accountability requires strong authentication of users and regulation of attribute providers and relying parties.

I question if any attribute should be described as 'privacy preserving'.  The release of any attribute is a relinquishing of some measure of privacy.  This is done out of the desire to "interact with one another socially and in business".  Privacy cannot be gained by withholding attributes only given up by the release of attributes.  And a decision to withhold attributes is a decision to not do business.

I believe Accountability is gained by introducing/increasing strong authentication (Identity) and Trust
I believe strong Identity is gained by introducing/increasing Trust, and accountability
I believe Trust is gained by introducing/increasing Identity, Privacy, and accountability
I believe Privacy is gained by introducing/increasing Accountability and trust.