Improving Customer Retention in E-Commerce through a Secure and Privacy-Enhanced Loyalty System

Loyalty systems provide an interesting possibility for vendors in customer relationship management. This holds for both real world and online vendors. Many vendors apply loyalty systems to collect customer-specific data that may be exploited for many reasons, e.g., price discrimination and direct marketing. As a consequence, beside some potential benefits of a loyalty system, customers may also fear an invasion of privacy, and thus often refuse to participate in such programs. Thus, a vendor may have problems to turn privacy sensitive people into loyal customers using a typical loyalty system. In this paper, we present two variants of a privacy-friendly loyalty system to be used by online vendors for issuing loyalty points. The systems prevent vendors from exploiting data for the creation of customer profiles by providing unconditional unlinkability of loyalty points with regard to purchases. We propose a simple token-based approach and a counter-based approach which is much more efficient while preserving the privacy and security properties. Furthermore, the counter-based loyalty system prevents pooling of loyalty points which were issued to distinct customers. Matthias Enzmann received his diploma in computer science from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, in 1999. In 1996, he started working with the TKT institute of GMD - German National Research Centre for Information Technology GmbH which in 2001 became Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Telecooperation due to the merger of GMD and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. Since 1999 he holds the position of a regular researcher at Fraunhofer SIT. Currently, his research interests focus on privacy protection in electronic business processes, agent based mediation, and pseudonym systems. Markus Schneider received his diploma in electrical engineering with specialization on communications engineering. Afterwards, he started to work in the area of information and communication security and received his Doctor degree in electrical engineering. Currently, he is with the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Telecooperation (SIT) in Darmstadt, Germany. His research interests include the development and application of security technologies in communications, and security and privacy issues in electronic business processes.     

CSCW系统中感知与隐私的平衡研究进展

简要回顾了计算机支持协同工作(Computer Supported Collaborative Work,CSCW)环境下感知、隐私的理论研究情况,总结了感知和隐私的平衡对用户体验产生的重要影响,并对CSCW系统中影响感知与隐私达到平衡的人的行为、物理环境、社会机制三种因素进行了分析,从信息控制、感知反馈、模糊过滤和逐步渐进四个方面归纳了实现平衡的技术手段,进而对CSCW系统中感知与隐私平衡研究的前景做出了展望。     

The organizational fit of information systems

Abstract. One can expect that the fit, match or congruence between an information system and its organizational context will be of increasing importance as information systems become more and more integral parts of organizations. Existing IS research has largely neglected the theoretical analysis of the concept 'fit', however, even though it has been widely used in a 'pre-theoretical' sense. The analysis of the concept of 'organizational fit of an information system' put forward in this article is essentially based on the recent analysis of 'fit' in contingency theory, suggesting three interpretations for the concept: a selection approach, an interaction approach and a systems approach. A review of the IS literature on the organizational fit of information systems indicates a lack of any cumulative tradition in existing empirical contingency research into information systems and dominance of the selection approach. Because of the two limitations, this paper regards any definite assessment of the potential prospects of contingency research into information systems as overhasty and proposes a framework for future research into the situation dependence and organizational fit of information systems which integrates contingency research into information systems, contingency research into IS impacts and contingency research into the IS adoption (development/implementation) process.     

无线体域网隐私保护技术研究

针对无线体域网中存在的隐私保护问题, 对其研究背景、研究意义以及研究现状进行综述, 从数据信息隐私保护和环境信息隐私保护两个角度对现有的研究成果进行了分类阐述, 介绍了攻击模型和安全目标, 说明每一类的关键实现技术, 并总结、分析和比较了各技术间的主要优缺点, 同时根据每一类的应用需求分别提出未来可能的发展趋势和研究方向。     

智能电网隐私保护工程分析与相关对策

保护电力消费者的数据和隐私对于智能电网来说是至关重要的。纵观全球,目前的智能电网往往趋于关注隐私安全的需要,隐私仅仅作为智能电网的一个特性存在。为了填补隐私保护在智能电网中的空白,同时帮助智能电网工程师分析隐私威胁、选择合适的策略即隐私保护技术最后达到解决智能电网系统开发阶段的隐私问题的目的,描述了相应的方法框架和指导规则,对现有的隐私保护技术进行了详细的总结,讨论了其应用的环境,并阐述了隐私实施过程中面对的潜在挑战。     

Situational Privacy Concerns and Antecedent Factors

This study examines the factors that contribute to context-based, or situational, privacy concerns drawing upon the theoretic lens of attribution theory. We posit that situational privacy concerns develop through individuals’ causal explanations of prior privacy incidents in addition to their trait-like, or dispositional, privacy concerns. Analysis of data from 156 participants confirms the significance of the relationships between a number of antecedent constructs and situational privacy concerns. The hypotheses developed to test these relationships were all supported through partial least squares, as were the psychometric properties of the scales used. The results further our understanding of context-based privacy concerns, particularly the mechanics of attribution in blaming, and holding online service providers responsible for privacy transgressions. Insights into situational privacy concerns help online service providers handle and ameliorate these concerns.     

Enabling Software Process Improvement: An Investigation of the Importance of Organizational Issues

This doctoral study was initiated to explore the relative importance of organizational issues in software process improvement. It is based on a pilot case study, a multiple case study of twelve organizations, and a quantitative survey among 120 software organizations. The findings from the investigations suggest that the key to successful learning is a continuous and simultaneous dialectic interplay between the knowledge that the organization has established over time, and the knowing of the organization's members in their respective contexts. Also, the findings indicate that success depends critically on six organizational factors. Finally, the findings show that there are important differences between small and large software organizations, specifically in the ways in which they react to unstable and changing stimulus situations.     

基于信息混淆的社会网络隐私保护机制

提出了一种基于信息混淆的社会网络隐私保护机制,其原理在于对整个社会网络里的隐私信息进行混淆,而非加密,使得需要保护的隐私信息以环形结构在社会网络里扩散开来。该机制以非集中化的方式工作,由用户之间的相互协作来保护用户的隐私信息。以"人人网"为平台,利用Firefox的扩展开发功能实现了该隐私保护的核心机制,证明了其可行性与可用性。该机制能够保证多方面的利益:要求隐私保护的主体用户、广告商、经过授权的用户及第三方应用。     

从需要理论看艺术设计与艺术的区别

本文从马斯洛"需要理论"的角度来认清艺术设计和艺术的主要区别,从而明确艺术设计和艺术各自的任务和研究内容,这有助于我们在设计学习和设计实践中更好的把握设计的发展方向,形成完整的设计理念,更好的完成设计任务。     

National security,individual privacy and public access to government-held information: the need for changing perspectives in a global environment

Governments are often the largest collectors of data within their jurisdiction, and often that data collection and storage is financially supported with public taxes. How governments manage and make available that information when requested by non-government parties varies by country. As the data-sharing world finds new and multi-platform ways to network, variations in legal access to government-held information create both opportunities and challenges. In this article, recent research is reviewed on problems faced by legal systems trying to navigate conflicts between individual privacy, public access and national state security.