Privacy-Friendly Smart Environments

In this paper we describe our approach on protecting user privacy in smart environments, particularly smart homes, which we call eHomes. These are environments with devices such as sensors, computational units, actors, which are seamlessly integrated in the environment, and objects we use in our everyday life. In order to provide more convenience to its users such environments can be personalized. As these environments become ubiquitous, thus supporting mobility of the users, new privacy threats arise. These are based on the digital traces and personal information which is left while visiting different environments. We provide a practical approach to minimize these traces and information disclosure by applying negotiation, identity management, and anonymous credentials. Also, we discuss the protection of eHomes from malicious users.