A Smart Contract-Based Dynamic Consent Management System for Personal Data Usage under GDPR

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Security
• Data Privacy

Background:

• Growing concerns over the massive collection and use of sensitive personal data by various entities.
• Limited existing solutions empower individuals to systematically manage consent and control data access and usage.
• The need for robust mechanisms to ensure privacy rights and data security in the digital age.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a smart-contract-based dynamic consent management system for personal data.
• To enhance user control over data collection, access, and usage throughout the data lifecycle.
• To ensure compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Main Methods:

• Development of a user-centric dynamic consent management system utilizing blockchain technology and smart contracts.
• Implementation of a prototype system to demonstrate feasibility.
• Assessment of system acceptability and reliability through experimental testing and validation.
• Analysis of system security, privacy, and performance.

Main Results:

• A functional prototype of the dynamic consent management system was successfully developed.
• Experimental testing validated the system's acceptability and reliability.
• The system provides tamper-proof data provenance, accountability, and traceability via blockchain.
• Security and privacy analyses confirmed the system's robustness.

Conclusions:

• The proposed blockchain-based dynamic consent management system effectively empowers individuals to control their personal data.
• The system offers a secure, transparent, and accountable solution for managing data usage consent.
• It presents a feasible and reliable approach to enhancing data privacy and security in compliance with regulations.