PIPwatch : the personal information protection toolbar project

Abstract

The goal of the Personal Information Protection toolbar (PIPWatch) project is to design a software tool that will help Canadian Internet users determine which websites they visit comply with Canadian privacy legislation, in particular the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The software tool will allow a community of privacy concerned Canadians to collectively gather and share information about the privacy practices of different organizations. This type of communal coordination, known as social navigation, has been successfully used in many other Internet-based projects, from Wikipedia to consumer ratings on eBay to numerous hotel and travel review sites. This project will attempt to evaluate if social navigation techniques can be applied to privacy enhancing technology.