Privacy: What Developers and IT Professionals Should Know [Paperback]

"Is it secret? Is it safe?"

Gandalf to Frodo Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

The movie Marathon Man contains a scene in which the protagonist is tied to a chair and being asked over and over again "Is it safe?" He doesn't know how to answer the question and starts to squirm when the interrogator takes out a set of dental tools and walks toward him. This is the discomfort that many consumers feel when considering whether to complete an online form or download software from the Internet. Not knowing whether it is safe to share your information or use technology can be frustrating. There should be no ambiguity when it comes to a person's safety. It should be clear what will happen to a person's data when clicking the Submit button on a form or dialog. You should be able to trust that the new software you installed on your computer won't take data from your computer and send it across the Internet.

When a dentist is looking in your mouth or a mechanic is looking under the hood of your car, do you wonder whether they are looking for their next Porsche payment or trip to Hawaii? Do you wish there were an easy way to trust their intentions? In the same manner, you probably wish there were an easy way to trust the privacy statement that is obtained from a Web site or the end-user license agreement from an application before you used them. You should not have to feel obliged to perform a Google search before trusting a company.

The term solutions, as used throughout this book, refers to applications, tools, software services, interactive Web pages, and any other products created with a programming or script language. I don't want anyone to think that I am focusing on only a specific type of technology or platform to provide answers to today's privacy issues.

This book will help you learn to use technologies that will help you protect your privacy and to build solutions that can help protect the privacy of others. More than that, you will learn to build your own privacy infrastructure to permit the creation of trustworthy software and services and help you respond effectively to privacy incidents.

I currently work at Microsoft in their Corporate Privacy Group. Most of what I know about privacy and much of the technology discussed in this book I learned while working there and with other groups at Microsoft during my six-year tenure. However, the opinions expressed in this book are entirely mine and the other contributors to this book, not those of Microsoft. Although many of the practices described in this book come from Microsoft practices, there are subtle differences between some of the practices described here and the ones followed at Microsoft. I even included descriptions of technology from companies other than Microsoft to give you a broader view of the privacy technologies that exist today.

My focus on Microsoft technologies in this book is not a statement that they are the only means or best means for developing privacy solutions; it is only indicative of the fact that I spent more than 15 years working on those technologies.

The information provided in this book should not be considered legal advice. Any practices that might affect the image of your company or that could expose you to litigation should not be implemented without consultation from your company's executive and legal departments.

The book consists of three parts, each with its own specific focus. Although all readers will benefit from reading the entire book, some readers may want to concentrate on areas that are of greatest interest to them.

Part I is Privacy for Everyone. It provides an overview of privacy, which will assist readers with understanding privacy policy, privacy-invasive and privacy-enhancing technologies, and protecting oneself from privacy intrusions.

Part II is Privacy and the Organization. It gives instruction on how to build a privacy organization, which looks at selecting personnel, getting training, and evangelizing privacy throughout the company. This part also looks at building a privacy response center to respond to privacy issues that might arise in a company.

Chapters 4 through 9 discuss issues that are important to consumers in protecting their privacy online. Consumers will learn about ways to protect themselves from spam, how to use P3P, and about privacy-invasive technologies.

Part III is Privacy and the Developer. This part goes into more technical topics that will be of interest to developers building privacy-enhancing technologies and companies looking to include privacy awareness into the way products are built. The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project is discussed along with protecting database data. This part includes a couple of sample applications that provide instruction on how to use role-based access control to protect access to data based on the category of the data and the role of the user wanting to access the data.

Praise for J.C. Cannon's Privacy

"A wonderful exploration of the multifaceted work being done to protect the privacy of users, clients, companies, customers, and everyone in between."

—Peter Wayner, author of Translucent Databases

"Cannon provides an invaluable map to guide developers through the dark forest created by the collision of cutting-edge software development and personal privacy."

—Eric Fredericksen, Sr. Software Engineer, PhD., Foundstone, Inc.

"Cannon's book is the most comprehensive work today on privacy for managers and developers. I cannot name any technical areas not covered. No practitioners should miss it."

—Ray Lai, Principal Engineer, Sun Microsystems, Inc., co-author of Core Security Patterns and author of J2EE Platform Web Services

"Every developer should care deeply about privacy and this is the best book I've read on the subject. Get it, read it, and live it."

—Keith Ballinger, Program Manager, Advanced Web Services, Microsoft

"J.C. Cannon's book demonstrates that information and communication technology can contribute in a significant way to restoring individual privacy and raises more awareness of the complexity and importance of this societal problem."

—Dr. John J. Borking, Former Commissioner and Vice-President of the Dutch Data Protection Authority

"If you are planning, implementing, coding, or managing a Privacy campaign in your company or your personal computing, there is no more relevant reference. J.C. Cannon nails the issues."

—Rick Kingslan, CISSP, Microsoft MVP-Windows Server: Directory Services and Right Management, West Corporation

"It's often been said that security is a process, not a product. Privacy is no different! Unlike other privacy books, J.C. Cannon's book has something valuable to convey to everyone involved in the privacy process, from executives to designers and developers, many of whom aren't thinking about privacy but should be."

—Keith Brown, Co-founder of Pluralsight and author of The .NET Developer's Guide to Windows Security and Programming Windows Security

"J.C. Cannon's new book on electronic privacy is an important addition to the available works in this emerging field of study and practice. Through many humorous (and occasionally frightening) examples of privacy gone wrong, J.C. helps you better understand how to protect your privacy and how to build privacy awareness into your organization and its development process. Keenly illustrating both the pros and cons of various privacy-enhancing and potentially privacy-invading technologies, J.C.'s analysis is thorough and well-balanced. J.C. also explains many of the legal implications of electronic privacy policies and technologies, providing an invaluable domestic and international view."

—Steve Riley, Product Manager, Security Business and Technology Unit, Windows Division, Microsoft

"Privacy concerns are pervasive in today's high-tech existence. The issues covered by this book should be among the foremost concerns of developers and technology management alike."

—Len Sassaman, Security Architect, Anonymizer, Inc.

You're responsible for your customers' private information. If you betray their trust, it can destroy your business. Privacy policies are no longer enough. You must make sure your systems truly protect privacy—and it isn't easy. That's where this book comes in.

J.C. Cannon, Microsoft's top privacy technology strategist, covers every facet of protecting customer privacy, both technical and organizational. You'll learn how to systematically build privacy safeguards into any application, Web site, or enterprise system, in any environment, on any platform. You'll discover the best practices for building business infrastructure and processes that protect customer privacy. You'll even learn how to help your customers work with you in protecting their own privacy. Coverage includes

• How privacy and security relate—and why security isn't enough
• Understanding your legal obligations to protect privacy
• Contemporary privacy policies, privacy-invasive technologies, and privacy-enhancing solutions
• Auditing existing systems to identify privacy problem areas
• Protecting your organization against privacy intrusions
• Integrating privacy throughout the development process
• Developing privacy-aware applications: a complete sample application
• Building a team to promote customer privacy: staffing, training, evangelization, and quick-response
• Protecting data and databases via role-based access control
• Using Digital Rights Management to restrict customer information
• Privacy from the customer's standpoint: spam avoidance, P3P, and other tools and resources

Whether you're a manager, IT professional, developer, or security specialist, this book delivers all the information you need to protect your customers—and your organization.

The accompanying CD-ROM provides sample privacy-enabling source code and additional privacy resources for developers and managers.

J. C. CANNON, privacy strategist at Microsoft's Corporate Privacy Group, specializes in implementing application technologies that maximize consumer control over privacy and enable developers to create privacy-aware applications. He works closely with Microsoft product groups and external developers to help them build privacy into applications. He also contributed the chapter on privacy to Michael Howard's Writing Secure Code (Microsoft Press 2003). Cannon has spent nearly twenty-five years in software development.

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