Personal data protection in the semantic web

Abstract

Growing concerns over the abuse of personal information via the World Wide Web can be addressed at political, social, and technical levels. As the Web evolves into the Semantic Web, where machines understand the information they process, technical solutions such as PEDAL become feasible. PEDAL, the Personal Data Access Language, defines a vocabulary for composing policies that describe characteristics of clients who are allowed or denied access to the personal information a policy governs. Policies can be merged together using PEDAL negotiation rules. Semantic Web logic processors reason through policies, arriving at a final determination on information distribution for each request. Software for implementing PEDAL and test cases for exercising its features demonstrate basic PEDAL functionality.