An Overview of Distributed Usage Control – Extended

Usage control generalizes access control to what happens to data in the future (“delete after thirty days,” “do not copy,” “notify owner upon access.”) Distributed usage control is about defining and enforcing usage control requirements on data after giving it away. It is relevant in the areas of data protection, the management of intellectual property, the management of secrets, and compliance with regulations. In this extended abstract, we provide an overview of the field. We introduce fundamental concepts, requirements, policy specifications, policy analyses, dissemination models, the enforcement of usage control requirements at different levels of abstraction, and the challenges ahead.