The Architecture of Privacy

Chapter 11. Practical Applications and Use Cases

Over the course of the preceding pages, we have described the foundational components of a privacy-protective information management architecture. Just like a set of building blocks, these capabilities can be combined in a wide variety of ways to create the final product. In some cases, you will find that you end up using more of one kind of block than another, and in others you might not use one particular block at all. In still other cases, you might need to design and build a bespoke privacy-enhancing technology as yet undreamt of and tailored to some set of unique circumstances. There are no absolute “right” answers when it comes to privacy: the ultimate design of your product will depend on the specific desires of you and your customers.

It may be helpful to see how our various building blocks interact. The following examples are not based on any particular real-world models, and the solutions we suggest are by no means the only possible privacy-protective configuration for the systems in these contexts. Indeed, you might be able to come up with far better configurations than we have. The intent is not to provide a guide to building these types of systems, but rather to demonstrate how some of the capabilities that have been described in the preceding chapters can fit together.

Basic Framework

Now that you’re equipped with the ideas and techniques from the preceding chapters, let’s return to the questions that were set out ...