INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS LARPP?
Lifestyles of the Attribute Rich and Privacy Preserved (LARPP) is a project funded by the National Strategies for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) contracted with Internet2 (I2) and under the leadership of its principal investigator, Ken Klingenstein. This projects sponsors pilot schools to implement privacy management software, named “Lens” to provide users with information and choices that allow them to exercise active, informed consent about the release of personal information, or “attributes,” in course of authentication to web sites and on-line services.
As a part of the NSTIC grant, LARPP aims to contribute to a variety of efforts, both public and privately funded, to augment the “identity ecosystem,” or the vast array of user credentials and authentication systems used to access Internet services. More specifically, LARPP, through Lens, tests one of the privacy principles active in the legal frameworks of most other developed countries: informed consent of the user to release personally identifiable attributes about themselves to a service provider.
How does it work? Very basically explained, when a user initiates an authentication process, for example when one logs in to Google or Facebook, the very act of initiating the process would automatically produce a drop-down box that breaks personally identifiable information into specific attributes. Such attributes are: a user name (e.g. jdoe); the real name of the user (e.g. John Doe); or the affiliation of the user to the entity that supplied the identifier (e.g. faculty). The drop-down box includes on-off swipe capability by which the user controls the release of each attribute. If the user has questions about the attribute, an “i” icon provides a link to information about it. This process constitutes “informed consent.”
What this explanation does not illuminate is the “attribute rich” nature of this project. Any number of defining attributes can be associated with the person. Of particular interest to LARPP are attributes for disability and veteran status. As accessibility becomes increasingly interwoven into web design, so, too, do privacy issues play a role in authentication for people with disabilities. Thus, a disabled user would have the option of releasing attributes to a service provider, depending on whether the individual prefers that the provider know, or not know, that he or she is disabled. Likewise, for a veteran, who may want to have their military status recognized for benefits or other reasons in a communication with a service provider, this project can develop attributes specific for that status available for veterans to choose to share. Trust marks that define these attributes will be developed an integrated into the work of this project.
To define and explain the potentialities of this project is not to suggest that it is without its challenges. First, pilot schools will work to implement the software technologically into its authentication infrastructure. Simultaneous with this effort is a vetting of its properties with campus stakeholders. With instruction about how it works goes discussion about why it is important for the campus community to embrace the software, and by extension, embrace privacy in any number of complementary sectors, not least in technology by design generally but specifically in the authentication ecosystem of the college or university that sometimes goes unnoticed because of the opaque nature of the information exchanged in the transaction. Finally, training of technology specialists and education throughout the community on LARPP, and the operation of Lens in particular, should generate policy discussions about technology and privacy, focus on attributes that enhance the user experience for interested groups such as the disabled or veterans, encourage research on Lens as an instrumentality, and demonstrate a commitment among the pilot schools as leaders of privacy by design in the higher education community.
Overall, why does it matter? First, because privacy matters increasingly to individual users, and there are myriad ways in which Internet technological process, unbeknownst to the user because of their opaque nature, have the potential to compromise or abuse privacy. Second, because the privacy laws of other developed nations of the world increasingly require informed consent, including in authentication processes. Third, as higher education in the U.S. seeks to collaborate with international partners, it will have to adopt these practices; Lenz eliminates the impediment in the authentication processes. Finally, privacy principles and fair information practices overlap into important other areas of social concern, such as accessibility and veteran’s affairs. Lens provides users with anonymity regarding their disability or veteran status (to name just a few classifications), preserving the user’s privacy and reducing the potential for bias.
Thus, LARPP is devoted to addressing technological, political and policy issues as they emerge for implementation on campuses, together with user experiences and research interests associated with the Privacy Lens software, and as a springboard to a broader discussion of privacy on the Internet, in higher education and in U.S. and global communities.
CURRENT PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
Carnegie Mellon University
Penn State University
University of Washington
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Colby College
University of Albany, State University of New York
Lafayette College
Duke University
Harvard University
University of Chicago
Swarthmore
UC Berkeley
RESOURCES
Lujo Bauer, Associate Research Professor, CyLab and ECE, Carnegie Mellon University presentation webinar on functionality of the privacy manager software: http://lbauer.ece.cmu.edu/2014-04-04-privacy-manager-demo.mp4
Ken Klingenstein, Principle Investigator, NSTIC for I2, introduction to LARPP Webinar: [to be provided] Slide Deck for Reference: LARPP basic deck - 4.16.14.pptx