Toward an architecture to improve privacy and informational self-determination through informed consent

Purpose Most developed countries have enacted privacy laws to govern the collection and use of personal information (PI) as a response to the increased misuse of PI. Yet, these laws rely heavily on the concept of informational self-determination through the “notice” and “consent” models, which is deeply flawed. This study aims at tackling these flaws achieve the full potential of these privacy laws. Design/methodology/approach The author critically reviews the concept of informational self-determination through the “notice” and “consent” model identifying its main flaws and how they can be tackled. Findings Existing approaches present interesting ideas and useful techniques that focus on tackling some specific problems of informational self-determination but fail short in proposing a comprehensive solution that tackles the essence of the overall problem. Originality/value This study introduces a model for informed consent, a proposed architecture that aims at empowering individuals (data subjects) to take an active role in the protection of their PI by simplifying the informed consent transaction without reducing its effectiveness, and an ontology that can partially realize the proposed architecture.