Privacy by typing in the π-calculus

Kouzapas, D. and Philippou, A. (2017) Privacy by typing in the π-calculus. Logical Methods in Computer Science, 13(4), pp. 1-42. (doi: 10.23638/LMCS-13(4:27)2017)

Abstract

In this paper we propose a formal framework for studying privacy in information systems. The proposal follows a two-axes schema where the first axis considers privacy as a taxonomy of rights and the second axis involves the ways an information system stores and manipulates information. We develop a correspondence between the above schema and an associated model of computation. In particular, we propose the \Pcalc, a calculus based on the π-calculus with groups extended with constructs for reasoning about private data. The privacy requirements of an information system are captured via a privacy policy language. The correspondence between the privacy model and the \Pcalc semantics is established using a type system for the calculus and a satisfiability definition between types and privacy policies. We deploy a type preservation theorem to show that a system respects a policy and it is safe if the typing of the system satisfies the policy. We illustrate our methodology via analysis of two use cases: a privacy-aware scheme for electronic traffic pricing and a privacy-preserving technique for speed-limit enforcement.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kouzapas, Mr Dimitrios
• Authors: Kouzapas, D., and Philippou, A.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: Logical Methods in Computer Science
• Publisher: International Federation of Computational Logic
• ISSN: 1860-5974
• ISSN (Online): 1860-5974
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 D Kouzapas and A. Philippou
• First Published: First published in Logical Methods in Computer Science 13(4):1-42
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License