December 2000

W3C/WAP Workshop

Mobile Web Privacy
Position Paper

Ricarda Weber
Siemens Corporate Technology
Security Technologies
Otto-Hahn-Ring 6
D-81730 Munich
Tel.: +49/89/636-4006
Email: ricarda.weber@mchp.siemens.de

Disclaimer

This position paper represents the author's personal point of view within the Security Technologies department of the Siemens Corporate Technology Unit only.

Company Background

Siemens as provider of Web and WAP sites as well as manufacturer of end-user devices like cell phones, PDAs and personal computers on the one hand and telecommunication infrastructures on the other hand is aware of the need for customer privacy protection. This awareness for instance resulted in a company wide Web site privacy policy statement (see http://www.siemens.com/en2/html/privacy_policy).

Siemens, together with other European IT manufacturers, strives within EICTA (see http://www.eicta.org) to promote the common interests of the represented ICT Industry in Europe towards the European Commission, Parliament, Council and member states. EICTA has formed a negotiation team regarding the General Data Protection Directive of the European Comission. Siemens is represented in this team with its mobile device and its personal computer units.

Research Interests

The author's personal interests in privacy protection in mobile contexts arise from a Siemens internal research project. This project will address privacy protection of mobile end-users. Privacy topics according to our point of view gain additional momentum in mobile scenarios due to increased facilities to identify and locate mobile end-users. Special topics of interest in this context are:
  • use cases regarding collection and deployment of privacy relevant information
  • consistent privacy protection across fixed and mobile Web platforms
  • roles of gateways, portals and network operators in privacy protection processes
  • technical measures to ensure privacy protection
  • means for end-users to control privacy protection issues
  • national and international legal aspects of privacy protection
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    November 6th, 2000, R. Weber, Siemens Corporate Technology, Security Technologies