STRAP: A Structured Analysis Framework for Privacy

Privacy is an important concern for users, and a difficult design challenge. Different user populations have different requirements and expectations when it comes to privacy; thus finding universally acceptable solutions is far from trivial. Design guidelines have been available for a number of years, but often fail to address the dynamic and impromptu nature of privacy management. These methods also fail to provide a robust and replicable procedure for identifying potential problems, leaving the design process more in the realm of art than science. We identify general requirements for privacy-aware design and review how existing methods and guidelines meet these requirements. We then introduce a light-weight method adapted from the requirements engineering literature for the structured analysis of privacy vulnerabilities in design and the iterative adaptation of preferences. We present a study of this method on a predictive group calendar system.