Dialing Privacy and Utility: A Proposed Data-Sharing Framework to Advance Internet Research

Abstract

We revisit the common assumption that privacy risks of sharing Internet infrastructure data outweigh the benefits, and suggest that we have a window of opportunity in which to apply methods for undertaking empirical Internet research that can lower privacy risks while achieving research utility. The current default, defensive posture to not share network data derives from the purgatory formed by the gaps in regulation and law, commercial pressures, and evolving considerations of both threat models and ethical behavior. We propose steps for moving the Internet research stakeholder community beyond the relatively siloed, below-the-radar data sharing practices and into a more reputable and pervasive scientific discipline, by self-regulating through a transparent and repeatable sharing framework.

Keywords: privacy, policy, data sharing, trust, legal risk, utility

JEL Classification: K100, K19, K39, M14, O31, O32, O39