Bachelor's Thesis Sebastian Schneider

Developing a Scenario-Based Method for the Selection of Suitable Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Data Privacy is an increasingly important field for both individuals and entities holding data. Especially, due to recent legislation like the GDPR, the necessity to use appropriate measures to increase privacy has become all the more apparent. These circumstances have led to a multitude of technologies receiving an increased amount of attention from affected parties. While some of them have been invented multiple decades ago, several new technologies have been created in the process of finding new methods to address the newly emerging interest in privacy.

Nevertheless, although this research has enabled interested entities to enhance privacy through a variety of methods, choosing a suitable approach to tackle this issue can be a complicated and lengthy process. This is partially a result of privacy itself, as clear definitions of what good privacy entails are often absent. Nonetheless, the main issue is, that practitioners unfamiliar with the field often do not know which technologies are available and what they can improve upon in a practical application scenario.

One important class of technologies improving privacy guarantees are Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). These technologies enable practitioners to enhance privacy by providing technical foundations, which can be used to protect against privacy risks. However, as a multitude of new PETs has emerged lately, the process of finding appropriate solutions can lead to practitioners facing the previously mentioned hurdles. The goal of the thesis is to address the lack of supportive materials and aid the users of our final artifact in getting acquainted with available technologies. To achieve this goal, we will be developing a Decision Support System providing technology recommendations to practitioners, which are based on information gained in the process of executing the process proposed in this thesis.

To achieve this goal, the thesis intends to address the following Research Questions:

1. What are the different scenarios where privacy enhancement is required and their corresponding basic requirements?
2. What are the distinct characteristics of the state-of-the-art Privacy-Enhancing Technologies and their possible areas of application?
3. How to guide the decision-making process to support practitioners in making informed decisions about the use of an appropriate Privacy-Enhancing Technology?