Title: CONCLUSION

Conclusion

In this chapter three main areas of protocols for privacy-aware communication have been described:  

1. Firstly anonymisation services have been tackled, in particular technologies for mixing IP packets and substituting IP addresses. Although theoretical models work quite well, today’s practical implementations do not provide appropriate safeguards against clever and powerful attackers. In addition, currently anonymisation services are not widely distributed; their usage often is inconvenient and increases undesired latency. The protocols and mechanisms of anonymisation services can be used on top of the protocols described in Chapter .

2. Secondly, user-centric identity management protocols have been introduced, especially concerning anonymous credentials and protocols for web services including single sign-on. This section shows several components which could be used in federated identity management to improve privacy and security. However, a high adoption in particular regarding anonymous credentials is crucial for a privacy assessment of ICT systems, otherwise the data disclosed from other protocol layers plus the additional information in the identity management area can be linked and yield detailed profiles on individuals. 

3. Thirdly, the domain of privacy policies is a vast area which could only briefly be touched on. Protocols for negotiating policies and enforcing them will play a prominent role in the next years. As data minimisation is not an option in many practical cases, policies and policy enforcement have to step in. From today’s perspective it is not clear which languages and protocols will prevail in which areas. 

Summarising, this chapter shows work in progress and points to some research questions which will, among other things, affect specification and standardisation of protocols.