Towards distributed privacy for CSCW

Tools for computer supported collaborative work offer many advantages for their users. Some developments in this field have included agent-based approaches for CSCW. Many challenges face the development and application of distributed, agent-based solutions for CSCW. A concern often overlooked is the acceptability and social impact of these technologies. In particular, the management of the privacy of collaborators is a paramount issue that must be accommodated. Included and related to the privacy of user information and interactions are assurances of integrity, certification, validation, ownership, non-repudiation, and authentication of individuals and software systems operating on disparate computers and operating systems, communicating over heterogeneous networks. We outline our early work on an approach for accountable privacy that may be applied to distributed computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) environments. Particular challenges for the issue of privacy associated with the CSCW application scenario are discussed.