Aims

Here are three reasons why you might want to take this course:

First, as engineer you will be designing, implementing, or managing electronic systems and services that in most cases have privacy implications. For example, ambient sensors and biomedical implants collect, process, store, and communicate (sometimes highly sensitive) data related to individuals; the data generated by ubiquitous electronic communications provides detailed insight into people’s activities and lifestyle; and the personalization of multimedia applications and services relies on learning about individuals’ most intimate preferences and adapting to them.

The first objective (O1) of the course is that you are able to identify the privacy concerns that arise in different scenarios. For example, if you are designing a new video-on-demand service for mobile phones, what could go wrong for your future users’ privacy?

The second objective (O2) is that you are able to relate privacy concerns to technical design choices. For example, what privacy risks arise from relying on unique identifiers? or from centralizing the storage and processing of data?

Privacy technologies aim to mitigate privacy concerns. The third objective (O3) is that you understand the principles underlying the design of privacy technologies. For example, anonymity technologies require diversity (of users, uses, attributes, internet subnets, etc.); advanced cryptographic protocols enable sophisticated services (e.g., smart metering) while minimizing the disclosure of data beyond what seems intuitively possible; and differential privacy ensures that queries to database of personal records cannot be used to determine if a particular individual record is included in the database.

Second, you will deal with privacy issues not only as an engineer but also as an individual and as a member of society. As an individual, you use a variety of services: mobile communications, online shopping, search engines such as Google, social media such as Facebook or Twitter, etc. The fourth objective of this course (O4) is that you become aware of what privacy issues are associated to the use of different services, what are your basic (legal) rights concerning privacy and data protection, and what technologies you can use to mitigate your exposure to privacy risks. As a result of this, you will be able to form your own informed opinions on how privacy issues should be addressed in our increasingly technological society. Many of these privacy issues are at the heart of ongoing debates whose outcome will have an influence on how society is shaped: Is the tracking of Internet users necessary for the economic sustainability of the Internet? Might profiling and personalization lead to social sorting and discrimination? Should certain content be censored? Should we have real name policies in social media to combat harassment? Should user communications be stored for long periods of time for the purpose of law-enforcement investigations? Are we building an unprecedented mass surveillance infrastructure, or are overblown privacy concerns an obstacle to data-driven innovation?

Finally, the course is heavily based on recent research. By participating in this course you will get a first hand experience of what research is like. The sixth objective (O5) is that you learn to read scientific articles, as well as to develop and present your own ideas. 

Previous knowledge

Ideally, students have a basic background in:

• probability theory and statistics: computing probabilities in basic models; understanding what is joint probability, conditional probability, random variable; knowing basic distributions (uniform, exponential, binomial); etc.
• information theory: familiarity with concepts such as entropy and mutual information
• cryptography, computer and network security: basic knowledge of cryptographic primitives such as symmetric key encryption, hash functions, and digital signatures; and of internet protocols, such as TLS or SSH.

Students lacking parts of this background will also be able to follow the course – with a bit of preparation they can quickly be up to speed with the basic background knowledge required.

Order of Enrolment

This course unit is a prerequisite for taking the following course units:
H0Q29A : Advanced Privacy Technologies

Is included in these courses of study

• Master in de ingenieurswetenschappen: wiskundige ingenieurstechnieken (Leuven) 120 ects.
• Courses for Exchange Students Faculty of Engineering Science (Leuven)
• Master of Mathematical Engineering (Leuven) 120 ects.
• Master in de ingenieurswetenschappen: elektrotechniek (Leuven) (ICT-beveiliging en netwerken) 120 ects.
• Master of Electrical Engineering (Leuven) (ICT Security and Networks) 120 ects.
• Master of Cybersecurity (Leuven) 60 ects.