Defining ownership of information

We are now ready to define ownership of information, in a congruent manner. The cornerstone of defining ownership of information is using decentralization of storage and processing of the information as the principal method. This is in stark contrast to centralized storage and processing, as defined in big data.

Note that decentralization as a principal means of processing is not opposed to centralized processing of (parts of) the information. It just means that centralized processing is secondary, and always with approval from the primary source.

Decentralization of processing permits you to demonstrate your ownership of the decentralized information, as follows:

If the data is only available in your device, it can be protected behind lock and key
If the communication infrastructure properly authenticates identities of participants, authorization can be used to limit access based on trust
Propagation of presence of all participants to approved subscribers in the network allows you to easily monitor your devices
Registration of ownership claims of devices in a Thing Registry allows for verification of ownership

Note that limiting access to the data is key to controlling ownership. As soon as the data leaves your control, the other party can technically do whatever they desire with it. You should therefore only allow access to your data to those that you intimately trust, or have a contract with, or an other arrangement, that specifies what can be done with the data. If you don't do this, you cannot enforce your ownership of the data, and for all practical reasons, you've lost your data.

All the requirements for being able to control ownership of data is possible if an infrastructure based on XMPP is used. XMPP furthermore has the benefit of being standardized, and therefore interoperable. Of the protocols presented in this book, it is the only protocol with these properties. Ownership is enforced in XMPP by the following:

Protection under lock and key are solved in XMPP using authentication and encryption.
Trust is modeled using presence subscriptions.
Limiting access can be done manually, or automatically, using a method called provisioning. We will discuss provisioning in more depth in this chapter.
Monitoring of your devices is done using presence.
Registration and discovery is performed in Thing Registries, as described in the previous chapter.

Limiting access to your information has an added advantage: it provides a means to establish the value of your information, by controlling who has access to it. Only limited resources have value. And the value is established on the principles of supply and demand. Limiting access to information will form the basis for creating an open market of information in the smart society.

Table of Contents for Defining ownership of information

Create new playlist

Sign In

Sign Up

Table of Contents for
Defining ownership of information