Context-aware Software Defined Privacy in the Internet of Things

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The physical and virtual space that we live in are becoming increasing intelligent. Many of the objects that surround us in the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) have some level of intelligence and are capable of communicating, collecting, accessing, and processing information. This intelligent space is accessible ubiquitously from anywhere, at anytime, and by anyone/anything that has the ability to exercise access rights. Such capability depends on processes, regulations, and security and privacy practices that are established by organizations, governments, and societies. The rise in intelligence comes with a price that is an unprecedented growth in complexity and size of objects, users, interactions, and processes. In particular, there is a growing awareness that the current cyberspace provides only basic support for governance of various entities such as data. There is also a global consensus that protecting privacy requires a more proactive and systematic approach at all levels of design: philosophy, software, hardware, user, and operational. A potential solution for this challenging paradigm is development of adaptive and intelligent approaches that can secure and protect data autonomously. This requires proactive mechanisms and procedures for data collection, sharing, aggregation, and protection in the IoT ecosystem. It also requires effective context-aware algorithms that process data in real-time and enable semantic reasoning for decision making. The objective of this research program is to build such capability to advance privacy, transparency, and trust in the IoT. In particular, we aim to build a new trust framework and a data driven software layer in the IoT architecture that enhance privacy management. These will ensure a more effective mechanism for data and asset ownership governance, access control, and intelligent and real-time intrusion detection and response. This program will train privacy engineers with multidisciplinary skills in the areas of privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence who will address the shortage of such professionals in Canada.