Daniel Woods: Privacy Preference Signals: Past, Present and Future

Title:
Privacy Preference Signals: Past, Present and Future

Abstract:
Privacy preference signals are digital representations of how users want their personal data to be processed. Such signals must be adopted by both the sender (users) and intended recipients (data processors). Adoption represents a coordination problem that remains unsolved despite efforts dating back to the 1990s. Browsers implemented standards like the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) and Do Not Track (DNT), but vendors profiting from personal data faced few incentives to receive and respect the expressed wishes of data subjects. In the wake of recent privacy laws, a coalition of AdTech firms published the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), which defines an opt-in consent signal. This talk integrates post-GDPR developments into the wider history of privacy preference signals. The story is illustrated with a number of web measurements.

Biography:
Daniel Woods is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Innsbruck. His research explores the incentive and information structures that determine how organisations make decisions about cybersecurity and privacy. He received his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. Website: danielwoods.info