Privity: Scalable infrastructure for enforcing privacy and security of personal information

Today, privacy and security concerns are being perceived as major roadblocks to creating vibrant marketplaces for context-aware personalized information services. Marketplace members would benefit if a trusted third-party could manage the complex privacy and security requirements associated with such services accessing end-user's personal and confidential information. This paper describes a clearinghouse approach that can foster information services marketplaces for end-users, personal and confidential information database owners, and value-added Application Service Providers (ASPs). The paper focuses on a credential-delegation crypto-system for scaling the clearinghouse by obviating the need for ASPs to proxy every request to the clearinghouse for approval.