Communications of the ACM
Know Instantly How Much Privacy a Website Visit Costs You
An Italian researcher has developed algorithms that can calculate the privacy costs of individual websites.
Credit: International Herald Tribune
Italian researcher Elisa Costante, who recently earned a Ph.D. from Eindhoven University of Technology, has developed algorithms that can calculate the privacy costs of websites.
The algorithms are designed to analyze the privacy policy of sites, and take into consideration factors such as the sensitivity of the data, how long data is stored, and websites' links to other Web services, according to Costante. She also has developed a tool that detects abnormal behavior in databases that store Web users' data.
Costante envisions her prototype being built into Web browsers, giving users advance warning of the extent to which websites make use of their personal data. The tool gives websites a rating between 0 and 1, with zero standing for no privacy costs.
Costante believes her tool would enable companies to stop data theft more quickly. She says her tool is the first of its kind to give low numbers of false alarms without significantly slowing down data traffic.
From Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)
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Abstracts Copyright © 2015 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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