Removing sensitive content from an image answers only half the privacy question in participatory sensing. The other half is distribution: who actually receives the report once it is sent. A citizen reporting a problem to their neighbourhood group has not agreed to publish it to the city, the press or a data buyer, and a platform that cannot enforce that distinction is asking contributors to take its word for it.
SOXFire is Keio University’s framework for encrypted data sharing among designated user groups. It handles report distribution so that only members of the intended group can access the content, with encryption rather than access-list conventions doing the enforcement.
In the Fujisawa work it sat behind SmileCityReport, carrying citizen reports to their intended recipients, and its security data was among the datasets contributed in encrypted, anonymised form to the cross-border marketplace shared with Santander.
– Encrypted distribution of reports to designated user groups
– Group membership determines who can read content
– Sits behind participatory sensing applications as distribution infrastructure
– Produces security data usable in aggregate, in anonymised form
– Developed and maintained by Keio University
Used in M-Sec Use Case 4 in Fujisawa, Japan, distributing SmileCityReport submissions to their intended groups across all three participatory phases. SOXFire security data was also integrated, encrypted and anonymised, into the M-Sec marketplace alongside Santander’s open city datasets.
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