A presentation from the W3C Track, WWW Conference April 2017, Perth.

1. Privacy Concerns
Related to
Verifiable Claims
David Hyland-Wood
david@hyland-wood.org
@prototypo

3. ““Failure is less attributable to either
insufficiency of means or impatience
of labours than to a confused
understanding of the thing
actually to be done.”
John Ruskin

5. A Presumption: Privacy is Good
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 10 December 1948:
Article 12: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and
reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against
such interference or attacks.”
Article 19: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this
right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.”

6. “There is no such thing as
absolute privacy in America.
James Comey,
FBI Director

7. “Law-abiding citizens value
privacy. Terrorists require
invisibility. The two are not the
same, and they should not be
confused.
Richard Perle

8. How easy it is for some
in the physical world to
find a few minutes
alone.

9. Privacy The Internet
A helpful Venn diagram

10. Privacy The Internet
A helpful Venn diagram

12. “Configuration options
are where arguments
go to die. Andrew Roberts

13. Verifiable Claims should:
not make the situation worse
make it better where it can

14. Core Issues

15. Cross-site tracking of credentials
An acknowledged concern:
https://github.com/opencreds/vc-data-model/issues/12

16. Cross-site tracking of credentials
An acknowledged concern:
https://github.com/opencreds/vc-data-model/issues/12
We are already tracked, and much more effectively.

17. Cross-site tracking of credentials
An acknowledged concern:
https://github.com/opencreds/vc-data-model/issues/12
We are already tracked, and much more effectively.
We don't need to provide any information to be tracked successfully.

18. Cross-site tracking of credentials
Mitigation strategies include:
Verifiable claims are identifier agnostic
Use local (non-correlatable) identifiers when possible
Accept the risks where agencies must collude, e.g. to enforce regulations

19. A single “identity” per individual?
Verifiable Claims:
Are “identity profiles” sufficient protection?
How do identity profiles relate to an individual “entity”?
In general:
How does an “identity” relate to a Verifiable Claims “entity”?

20. Privacy Concerns
Related to
Verifiable Claims
David Hyland-Wood
david@hyland-wood.org
@prototypo

21. Acknowledgements
Verifiable Claims Data Model and Representations Draft Community Group
Report 25 February 2017
Verifiable Claims Data Model open issues
W3C Member-only discussions related to the Verifiable Claims Working Group

22. Acknowledgements
Locked gate photo by Flickr user Francesca Minonne, CC-BY-SA 2.0
UN UDHR
Hotel deadbolt lock photo by Flickr user Benjamin Turner, CC-BY 2.0
Internet privacy Venn diagram based on a Venn diagram by Flickr user Rob Jewitt, CC-BY-SA 2.0
Facebook privacy screenshot © 2010 Facebook, screenshot by Flickr user Radagast, CC-BY 2.0.
Number 2 photo by Flickr user Chris, CC-BY-SA 2.0
Spherical chicken © 1995 D.R. Commander, used under fair use provisions for educational
purposes.