Open Tech Calendar

Pizza, beer and networking 6.30pm.

Talk 1 -"Policies for Data Sharing" Prof. Wamberto Vasconcelos, Aberdeen University

When we download and start using an app often we agree to sharing our data. Rarely have we the time, the inclination or the competence to read the “terms and conditions” and assess the consequences of giving away our data. We present an approach to expressing and reasoning with data sharing policies: by using a machine-processable formalism with associated decision mechanisms, we can establish for instance, if the terms and conditions of an app (or the privacy/cookies provisions of a web site) are compatible with users’ (or organisational) data sharing policies. Typical policies establish, for instance, that the app can access the GPS or the calendar, but not both; another example is within the health domain: the app can monitor my levels of exercise, but it cannot share this information. We will cover i) the information/knowledge necessary for representing policies and reasoning with them; ii) the current standards and technologies for policy-based solutions; iii) how we can equip (cloud-based) workflows to operate subject to policies.

Wamberto Vasconcelos is a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen. His research fields are distributed systems (including peer-to-peer and multi-agent systems), software engineering and knowledge representation and reasoning.

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Thanks to MBN Solutions, Data Lab Scotland and Scotland IS for sponsoring this event.

Photo by Daniel Hjalmarsson on Unsplash