The role of network trace anonymization under attack
ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
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The last few years have seen increasing attention paid to privacy issues and data protection requirements with respect to network traffic monitoring. The increasing spread of the use of information technology and the Internet among the general public on the one hand, and the introduction of new technologies that allow the gathering, centralization, aggregation, and analysis of network traffic data on the other hand, are raising concerns as to the protection of the individuals' right to privacy with respect to network monitoring on the Internet. The activity of network monitoring is perceived as a serious risk to individual privacy, since in some cases it may result in the capture of the content of the individual communications of network end users, which can result direct surveillance of those communications. Moreover, tracking or summarizing the online activities of individuals (e.g., through flow data collection) may result in an unlawful encroachment into individual privacy, with the individuals often unaware that their activities are being monitored. Even when the aim of network monitoring is legitimate and without intention to infringe upon the privacy rights of end users, as in the case of monitoring performed in order to enhance network security and performance, the network monitoring activity may be subject to data protection laws, and safeguards and measures must be put in place to prevent unlawful use of the data gathered. The goal of this panel is to discuss the legal and regulatory implications of data protection law on the work of the network measurement community. We will focus on the applicability of the law to the monitoring of communications and the retention and processing of personally identifiable information, in order to explore the interaction of these laws with the practice of network measurement and the anonymization of network data. To this extent, and deriving from the national nature of data protection laws, we will address legal requirements in different jurisdictions: Europe, Japan, and the United States. The aim of ensuing discussion will be to inform the network measurement and analysis community of the requirements posed by data protection laws, the differences in the laws among the jurisdictions examined, and issues posed by data sharing across jurisdictions. In particular, the panel will address the following questions:How is personal data defined in different jurisdictions? How does this apply to network traffic data? How is the transfer of data across national boundaries regulated? What are possible approaches to improve data protection? Is data anonymization a solution to data protection? What are practical approaches to data sharing? What needs to be considered beyond technical solutions?