Privacy and Security in Personal Data Clouds

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Publication date:February 7, 2017

The main objective of this study is to identify the different architectures and components of Personal Data Clouds (PDCs) and discuss their privacy and security challenges. Based on an empirical analysis of various applications that fall under, or are close to, the definition of PDCs, the study presents a “state of the art” analysis of the security and privacy features of PDCs.

The study assesses to what extent current PDC solutions, either available on the market or in a research and development phase, are supported by functionalities that enhance the level of security and privacy they offer to their users by enabling the latter to take decisions over their data and, ideally, enforce them (user centric model). Given that mobile health applications have been gaining considerable attention nowadays, especially through the data storage and communication capabilities of wearables, the study identifies in particular privacy-enhancing features already adopted by certain PDCs in the health sector.