202
A. Solanas et al.
processing [437]. In a nutshell, the consolidation of these technologies has paved
the way for what has been called the third era of modern computing [424].
Following the increasing use of UCS, it was inevitable that they would become
able to sense, collect and store huge amounts of information, which quite frequently
refer to people. From a global perspective, this results in a tremendous increase in
the data generated (and stored) in the digital world and, in fact, according to IBM,
by 2017 90% of all data ever created had been created just in the previous 2 years
[290]. It is worth noting that most of this data is sensor-based data gathered by
UCS. In this situation of rapid growth of heterogeneous data, big data technologies
has emerged as a solution for their management and processing [293].
People, consciously or not, provide vast amounts of personal information
(e.g., locations, preferences) to digital services in exchange for an improved user
experience and personalized results. In the UCS context, the storage and processing
of large amounts of data could jeopardize privacy. Thus, it must be preserved by
computer systems and technologies should be revisited as they evolve to guarantee
individuals’ privacy and to foster awareness. Interestingly enough, about two
decades ago, in the late 1990s, initial studies evaluated people’s awareness regarding
privacy in the digital world due to the rise of the Internet and e-commerce. This was
done by profiling individuals [351] and evaluating their comfortability in providing
different types of information [8]. At that time, people could have hardly imagined
the effects of the new digital era and its influence on today’s lives. Thus, recent
studies aim at evaluating the levels of concern of people regarding ubiquitous
tracking and recording technologies [438], and their main concerns regarding their
loss of control over their privacy [352]. Currently, the adoption of big data motivates
the redefinition and analysis of privacy concerns on UCS [400].
Already identified as one of the most challenging issues, privacy is not a
new addition to the ubiquitous computing field [578]. Unfortunately, determining
whether a given UCS is privacy-friendly is not straightforward, since current
techniques are based on individual analyses. In this context, understanding the
purpose of UCS, how they work, and why they work that way, are key questions that
emerge from the analysis of their privacy features [348, 513]. The increasing number
and variety of UCS makes the assessment of the proper management of personal
data in all UCS devices very difficult. Additionally, new advances in the privacy
and security fields (e.g., recent attacks, vulnerable technologies and protocols) do
not guarantee to an adequate level that a certain UCS will always remain safe,
and this motivates the periodical review of UCS privacy-related analyses. It should
also be highlighted that the recent implementation of the General Data Protection
Regulation [547] requires the privacy impact assessment of all services that process
sensitive user data, along with other requirements such as consent management,
mechanisms to allow data portability, and erasure of user data [486]. All in all,
interest in UCS privacy is justifiably growing.
A. Solanas et al.
processing [437]. In a nutshell, the consolidation of these technologies has paved
the way for what has been called the third era of modern computing [424].
Following the increasing use of UCS, it was inevitable that they would become
able to sense, collect and store huge amounts of information, which quite frequently
refer to people. From a global perspective, this results in a tremendous increase in
the data generated (and stored) in the digital world and, in fact, according to IBM,
by 2017 90% of all data ever created had been created just in the previous 2 years
[290]. It is worth noting that most of this data is sensor-based data gathered by
UCS. In this situation of rapid growth of heterogeneous data, big data technologies
has emerged as a solution for their management and processing [293].
People, consciously or not, provide vast amounts of personal information
(e.g., locations, preferences) to digital services in exchange for an improved user
experience and personalized results. In the UCS context, the storage and processing
of large amounts of data could jeopardize privacy. Thus, it must be preserved by
computer systems and technologies should be revisited as they evolve to guarantee
individuals’ privacy and to foster awareness. Interestingly enough, about two
decades ago, in the late 1990s, initial studies evaluated people’s awareness regarding
privacy in the digital world due to the rise of the Internet and e-commerce. This was
done by profiling individuals [351] and evaluating their comfortability in providing
different types of information [8]. At that time, people could have hardly imagined
the effects of the new digital era and its influence on today’s lives. Thus, recent
studies aim at evaluating the levels of concern of people regarding ubiquitous
tracking and recording technologies [438], and their main concerns regarding their
loss of control over their privacy [352]. Currently, the adoption of big data motivates
the redefinition and analysis of privacy concerns on UCS [400].
Already identified as one of the most challenging issues, privacy is not a
new addition to the ubiquitous computing field [578]. Unfortunately, determining
whether a given UCS is privacy-friendly is not straightforward, since current
techniques are based on individual analyses. In this context, understanding the
purpose of UCS, how they work, and why they work that way, are key questions that
emerge from the analysis of their privacy features [348, 513]. The increasing number
and variety of UCS makes the assessment of the proper management of personal
data in all UCS devices very difficult. Additionally, new advances in the privacy
and security fields (e.g., recent attacks, vulnerable technologies and protocols) do
not guarantee to an adequate level that a certain UCS will always remain safe,
and this motivates the periodical review of UCS privacy-related analyses. It should
also be highlighted that the recent implementation of the General Data Protection
Regulation [547] requires the privacy impact assessment of all services that process
sensitive user data, along with other requirements such as consent management,
mechanisms to allow data portability, and erasure of user data [486]. All in all,
interest in UCS privacy is justifiably growing.