HP working on privacy tool

HP believes organisations are crying out for tools that give them more control over the data they own

HP has gone public with an innovative research project that could provide a new system to help individuals and businesses keep better track of the information they put online.

The new tool, EnCoRe (ensuring consent and revocation), is designed to sit in both an end user’s PC and in corporate back-end computer systems and sync information on which privacy protocols a user has agreed to share or pass on to third-party sites.

Pete Bramhall, a senior researcher at HP Labs, explained that with users placing more information online than ever before, there is a growing understanding around issues of privacy.

"We've developed a plug-in for web browsers at the front-end, and at the back-end an architecture that keeps track of how people's data is shared and passed on and what permissions are given," he explained.

"It will mean that other organisations have to install the technology too, but we are seeing that many corporations, as well as social networks, are becoming increasingly aware of the need to ensure data is properly handled and protected."

Bramhall explained that research on the project originally started almost six years ago, but said that recent controversies involving Facebook and Google had now brought the issue of privacy to the fore.

"With the European Commission urging the UK government to give the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) more powers, there is certainly a need among all types of businesses to have more control over data they own," he said.

Bramhall also noted HP would be considering making a commercial version of the product in the future but reiterated that currently it was still in development and more work needed to be done by the firms involved to get it ready for market.

Those working on the project include the University of Warwick, QinetiQ, HW Communications, Oxford University's HeLEX Centre and regulation and business experts from the London School of Economics (LSE).