skip to main content
10.1145/3326365.3326410acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesicegovConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Privacy and Data Protection Concerns Regarding the Use of Blockchains in Smart Cities

Published:03 April 2019Publication History

ABSTRACT

In this work we investigate which aspects of data protection regulation must be carefully observed when implementing Blockchain-based projects in smart cities. This technology provides interesting properties and allows governments to develop flexible and innovative data management systems. Nevertheless, realizing the benefits of using Blockchains requires understanding the government processes along with the legal framework and political setting imposed on government. Though it is a buzzword, Blockchain may not always be the best solution for data processing, and carrying out a Data Protection Impact Assessment could allow an analysis of the necessity and proportionality of the mechanism. Furthermore, principles relating to security of data remain applicable to Blockchains. We discuss points of interaction between Blockchain technology and the European Union data protection framework, and provide recommendations on how to better develop Blockchain-based projects in smart cities. The findings of the study should provide public sector actors with a guideline to assess the real necessity and better format of a Blockchain-based application.

References

  1. CNIL. 2018. Solutions for a responsible use of the Blockchain in the context of personal data. Technical Report. Commission Nationale Informatique & Libertés. https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/blockchain.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. European Central Bank and Bank of Japan. 2018. Securities settlement systems: delivery-versus-payment in a distributed ledger environment - Stella project report phase 2. Technical Report March. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/stella_project_report_march_2018.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. Oded Goldreich. 2001. Foundations of Cryptography. Vol. I. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  4. Christiaan Lemmen, Jacques Vos, and Bert Beentjes. 2017. Ongoing Development of Land Administration Standards: Blockchain in Transaction Management. European Property Law Journal 6, 3 (2017), 478--502.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  5. Filipa Matias Magalhães and Maria Leitão Pereira. 2018. Regulamento Geral de Proteção de Dados. Manual Prático. VidaEconómica, Porto, PT.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  6. Roger Maull, Phil Godsiff, Catherine Mulligan, Alan Brown, and Beth Kewell. 2017. Distributed ledger technology: Applications and implications. Strategic Change 26, 5 (2017), 481--489.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  7. Teogenes Moura and Alexandre Gomes. 2017. Blockchain Voting and its effects on Election Transparency and Voter Confidence. In Proceedings of the 18th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (dg.o '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 574--575. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  8. Satoshi Nakamoto. 2008. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  9. Arvind Narayanan and Jeremy Clark. 2017. Bitcoin's Academic Pedigree. Commun. ACM 60, 12 (2017), 36--45. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  10. Jason Potts, Ellie Rennie, and Jake Goldenfein. 2017. Blockchains and the crypto city. it - Information Technology 59, 6 (2017), 285--293.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. Rogelio Rivera, José G. Robledo, Víctor M. Larios, and Juan Manuel Avalos. 2017. How Digital Identity on Blockchain can contribute in a smart city environment. In 2017 International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2). 1--4.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  12. Paolo Tasca and Claudio J. Tessone. 2017. Taxonomy of Blockchain Technologies. Principles of Identification and Classification. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2977811Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  13. Mark Walport. 2015. Distributed ledger technology: Beyond block chain. Technical Report. UK Government Office for Science, London. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492972/gs-16-1-distributed-ledger-technology.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  14. Karl Wüst and Arthur Gervais. 2018. Do you need a Blockchain?. In 2018 CryptoValley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT). 45--54.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref

Index Terms

  1. Privacy and Data Protection Concerns Regarding the Use of Blockchains in Smart Cities

        Recommendations

        Comments

        Login options

        Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

        Sign in
        • Published in

          cover image ACM Other conferences
          ICEGOV '19: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance
          April 2019
          538 pages
          ISBN:9781450366441
          DOI:10.1145/3326365

          Copyright © 2019 ACM

          Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

          Publisher

          Association for Computing Machinery

          New York, NY, United States

          Publication History

          • Published: 3 April 2019

          Permissions

          Request permissions about this article.

          Request Permissions

          Check for updates

          Qualifiers

          • research-article
          • Research
          • Refereed limited

          Acceptance Rates

          ICEGOV '19 Paper Acceptance Rate81of171submissions,47%Overall Acceptance Rate350of865submissions,40%

        PDF Format

        View or Download as a PDF file.

        PDF

        eReader

        View online with eReader.

        eReader