Location Privacy and Inference in Online Social Networks

Abstract

Data protection is about protecting information about per-sons, which is currently flowing without much control –individuals can-not easily exercise the rights granted by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Individuals benefit from “free” services offered by companies in exchange of their data, but these companies keep their users’ data in “silos” that impede transparency on their use and possibilities of easy interactions. The introduction of the GDPR warrants control rights to individuals and the free portability of personal data from one entity to another. However it is still beyond the individual’s capability to perceive whether their data is managed in compliance with GDPR. To this regard, in this work the proposed approach consists in using decentralized mechanisms to provide transparency through distributed ledgers, data flow governance by using smart contracts and interoperability relying on semantic web technologies.