Privacy by Design means that by building information systems using certain design principles means the system is private if the principles are followed. Privacy will only be compromised if an entity deliberately sets out to break privacy laws and regulations. The design principles embodied in Welcomer are:
- Each entity has a unique id and credential for each entity with which it interacts.
- Credentials are changed with each interaction.
- Each entity has access to the information held about them by any entity with whom they interact.
- The first principle makes it difficult for entities to share information about a third entity without deliberately breaking privacy laws.
- The first principle means credentials are distributed and there is no single credential that identifies an entity.
- The second principle means it is difficult for an identity thief to capture all the credentials of a person.
- The third principle means that entities are likely to hold accurate and correct information about each other.
Welcomer implements these principles by
- Entities not sharing ids with any other entity other than the entity referenced
- Creating a graph of interactions where each link in the graph is maintained by a mutual credential formed by a PKI pair.
- Each time a link is activated the mutual credential pair is replaced where-ever possible
- By each entity having access to the information stored by the other entity
- By entities communicating with devices that can hold a credential