Informed consent in Internet of Things: The case study of cooperative intelligent transport systems

Informed Consent is an important element for data protection of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems as the consent of a data subject (e.g., the citizen) is often necessary for a third party to legitimately process personal data. To provide informed consent regarding the use of personal data, the citizen must have a clear understanding on how his/her personal data will be used by the system. This may not be an easy task in the upcoming paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT) where personal data can be collected without the full awareness of the user. A specific case study of IoT is Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), where vehicles will be capable of broadcasting or receiving data that allow them to communicate with each other and/or with the road infrastructure. C-ITS equipped vehicles constantly broadcasting data, including their speed and location may generate privacy risks, which must be addressed. While various privacy mitigation techniques have been proposed in literature, one key function is the provision of informed consent. This paper will describe a potential implementation for informed consent in C-ITS using a policy-based framework, where privacy settings and preferences can be defined by the user, thus empowering the user in the control of his/her private data.