Linking Privacy and User Preferences in the Identity Management for a Pervasive System

Two important concepts in developing ubiquitous or pervasive computing technologies that are acceptable to the end user are personalization and privacy. On the one hand it is essential to take account of user needs and preferences to personalize decision making within such a system, on the other hand it is equally important to protect user privacy. One approach to handling user privacy is through the use of virtual identities. This has the advantage that it can also benefit the handling of user preferences. In particular, virtual identities can be used as a substitute for roles. On the other hand user preferences can be used in identity management to assist in selecting a virtual identity to hide the real identity of the user, thereby improving user-friendliness of the system. This paper describes this symbiosis and how it is implemented in the Daidalos pervasive system.