1) The document discusses privacy and how it relates to controlling the sharing of personal attributes and identity information on the internet. 2) It argues that without privacy protections, there could be invasions of privacy, failures of business relationships, and failures of freedoms of speech, association, and thought. 3) The conclusion is that some form of privacy is necessary for commerce, social interaction, and civil discourse to exist online, and that it may be most feasible to implement privacy controls at the application layer of the internet architecture rather than lower layers.

1. Privacy: Can we afford not to?Dr. Karen SollinsMIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryFIA Meeting, Gent, Belgium, December 17, 2010

2. What is it about privacy?AboutThe subject: usually a personIdentity: set of attributes or claimsSeparation of inherent or assigned attributes from profiled informationPolicies about what to share and what notNot about complete isolation

3. Interesting attributesIdentification: name, government id number, address, etc.Authorship: linking identity to resourcesCommunication: Others with whom have communicatedUsage: Objects, services, and other resources used

4. What if we could not control these?Identification: invasion of privacy, masquerading, failure of business relationships, Authorship: failure of legal contracts, freedom of speechCommunication: failure of freedom of associationUsage: failure of freedom of thoughtConsider: requirements of diplomacy, intelligence gathering, proprietary and confidential businessConsider: confidentiality of doctor-patient and attorney-client relationships

5. Consequences of Internet devoid of privacyNo commercial substrateNo social substrateNo civil substrateLikely: walled gardens in stove-pipe constructions, privacy only controllable in restricted communities

6. Where does that leave us?Reality: privacy will not be perfectPrivacy is not about complete hiding, but controlled sharing with enforcementPrivacy will exist in some form, because social, business, and civil arenas cannot exist without themQuestion: at which layer in the architecture?

7. Which architectural layer?App space: user involvement and controlCan be end-to-endTransport: Narrow waist of the architecture – locus of homogeneityVERY difficult to changeBelow transport: apparent walled gardens, isolation