With the Home Office estimating that identity theft costs the UK economy as much as GB pound 1.7 billion every year, protecting our personal information has never been more important. Now, experts at Cranfield University have teamed up with the Royal Holloway University of London, Salford University, Consult Hyperion and Sunderland City Council to carry out a challenging three-year project.
As part of the VOME (Visualisation and Other Methods of Expression) Project, the consortium will investigate topics of privacy and consent for identity management with the ultimate aim of helping people and organisations make well-informed judgments about their choice of online services, how they use them and what information they give out.
Speaking to info4security about the project, Cranfield University’s lead researcher Debi Ashenden stated: “There’s a concern that people aren’t really clear about the value of their unique identity. Our research will engage people in current debates about privacy and consent issues, find out how they think about their identity and what decisions they make. We hope the discussions will provide invaluable information to inform new identity management tools.”
The Technology Strategy Board
VOME is part of a GB pound 5.5 million investment by the Technology Strategy Board, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). This investment will also fund two further projects – designated Encore and Privacy Value Networks – tasked with examining different aspects of identity protection.
The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body established by the Government. Its role is to promote and support research into – and the development and exploitation of – technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business with the aim of increasing economic growth and improving quality of life. The Board is sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
Commenting on the Technology Strategy Board’s support for the project, Andrew Tyrer [-] who leads its Network Security Innovation Platform [-] explained: “Governments and businesses around the world will make substantial investments in identity management infrastructures over the next few years. These procurements will need to inspire public confidence that issues around improving privacy and enabling informed consent have been fully integrated. This research will be key to ensuring that the hardware and software required will meet public expectations concerning these important issues.”
The results from VOME are due to be published in September 2011. For further information contact VOME’s project leader Lizzie Coles-Kemp ([email protected])
Encore and Privacy Value Networks
The Encore Project will focus on the issue of providing more rigorous means for individuals to grant and revoke their consent for the use, storage and sharing of personal data, bringing together technological, procedural and regulatory developments.
It’s being run jointly by the Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, HW Communications, QinetiQ, the London School of Economics, the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick. For further information, contact project leader Pete Bramhall ([email protected])
Privacy Value Networks (pvnets) will generate a detailed understanding of individuals’ and organisations’ conceptions of privacy and identity across a range of contexts and timeframes thanks to the use of many techniques including in-depth privacy value and devalue chains analysis to model the impact of personal information.
This initiative is being run by the University of Oxford, the University of St Andrews, University College London, the University of Bath Consult Hyperion. More details are available by e-mailing project leader Dr Ian Brown ([email protected])
All you need to know about… Cranfield University
Cranfield University is a wholly postgraduate institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence and expertise in aerospace, automotive, defence, engineering, environment and water, health, management and manufacturing studies.
The University is made up of the following schools: Cranfield Health, the School of Management, the School of Applied Sciences, the School of Engineering and The Defence College of Management and Technology at Shrivenham.
