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Microsoft-led project to create an "identity layer" for the
internet created Seven Laws of Identity, which Cavoukian has used
as the basis for a paper calling for the laws to be embedded in
software. The aim of the project is to help computer users to
manage their own identity online.
“Just as the internet saw explosive growth as it sprang from the
connection of different proprietary networks, an 'identity big
bang’ is expected to happen once an open, non-proprietary and
universal method to connect identity systems and ensure user
privacy is developed in accordance with privacy principles,” said
Cavoukian.
“Microsoft started a global privacy momentum. Already, there is
a long and growing list of companies and individuals who now
endorse the Seven Laws of Identity and are working towards
developing identity systems that conform to them," she said.
Cavoukian argues that the latest generation of internet
services, commonly called Web 2.0 and depending in many cases on
personalisation, will create a demand for more information about
users' identities. Users will need to know whether they can trust a
site before handing over information, and the Seven Laws are
designed to help users make that decision, said Cavoukian's
office.
Microsoft has published its own guidelines on embedding privacy
into software. "Privacy concerns are easy to understand in
principle, but challenging to address in practice, particularly in
the development of software," said Peter Cullen, chief privacy
strategist at Microsoft. "Similar guidelines have helped
Microsoft's developers better understand and address privacy
issues, and we hope that by releasing a public version we can
promote an ongoing industry dialogue on protecting privacy through
consistent development practices."
The proposals for embedded privacy settings is not unlike the
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), a World Wide Web
Consortium-developed automatic reader and sender of information
about a website's privacy policies. It was launched in 2002.
Couvoukian said that another aim of the Seven Laws is to help
users cut down on the degree to which data is shared and
centralised.
“In the real world when we present a library card, for example,
to check out a book, and present our passport to cross a national
border we don’t expect these to be linked together," she said. "Nor
is the access card we use to enter our office the same as the
transit pass we use to board a bus. In the physical world,
different transactions require different identity credentials, but
they need not be linked together. It should be no different in the
online environment.”
