Privacy Requirements and Realities of Digital Public Goods

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gopi, Geetika, Maddi, Aadyaa, Arasaratnam, Omkhar, Fanti, Giulia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Gopi, Geetika
Maddi, Aadyaa
Arasaratnam, Omkhar
Fanti, Giulia
author_facet Gopi, Geetika
Maddi, Aadyaa
Arasaratnam, Omkhar
Fanti, Giulia
contents In the international development community, the term "digital public goods" is used to describe open-source digital products (e.g., software, datasets) that aim to address the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. DPGs are increasingly being used to deliver government services around the world (e.g., ID management, healthcare registration). Because DPGs may handle sensitive data, the UN has established user privacy as a first-order requirement for DPGs. The privacy risks of DPGs are currently managed in part by the DPG standard, which includes a prerequisite questionnaire with questions designed to evaluate a DPG's privacy posture. This study examines the effectiveness of the current DPG standard for ensuring adequate privacy protections. We present a systematic assessment of responses from DPGs regarding their protections of users' privacy. We also present in-depth case studies from three widely-used DPGs to identify privacy threats and compare this to their responses to the DPG standard. Our findings reveal limitations in the current DPG standard's evaluation approach. We conclude by presenting preliminary recommendations and suggestions for strengthening the DPG standard as it relates to privacy. Additionally, we hope this study encourages more usable privacy research on communicating privacy, not only to end users but also third-party adopters of user-facing technologies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_15842
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Privacy Requirements and Realities of Digital Public Goods
Gopi, Geetika
Maddi, Aadyaa
Arasaratnam, Omkhar
Fanti, Giulia
Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
Computers and Society
In the international development community, the term "digital public goods" is used to describe open-source digital products (e.g., software, datasets) that aim to address the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. DPGs are increasingly being used to deliver government services around the world (e.g., ID management, healthcare registration). Because DPGs may handle sensitive data, the UN has established user privacy as a first-order requirement for DPGs. The privacy risks of DPGs are currently managed in part by the DPG standard, which includes a prerequisite questionnaire with questions designed to evaluate a DPG's privacy posture. This study examines the effectiveness of the current DPG standard for ensuring adequate privacy protections. We present a systematic assessment of responses from DPGs regarding their protections of users' privacy. We also present in-depth case studies from three widely-used DPGs to identify privacy threats and compare this to their responses to the DPG standard. Our findings reveal limitations in the current DPG standard's evaluation approach. We conclude by presenting preliminary recommendations and suggestions for strengthening the DPG standard as it relates to privacy. Additionally, we hope this study encourages more usable privacy research on communicating privacy, not only to end users but also third-party adopters of user-facing technologies.
title Privacy Requirements and Realities of Digital Public Goods
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15842