PDAS: A Digital-Signature-Based Authorization Platform for Digital Personal Data

Abstract

Smart Disclosure, a new concept proposed by the U.S. government, has been widely accepted by the advanced countries globally. Previously, our team has built a personal data exchange system based on the Green Button open-source project to assist in achieving Smart Disclosure by realizing two core requirements, DMD (Download My Data) and CMD (Connect My Data). However, several issues still need to be addressed: (1) legality of data authorization, (2) security of data authorization records, and (3) multi-user authorization. To address the above issues, this research utilizes the technology of Citizen Digital Certificate, digital signature, and blockchain to establish an authorization system for digital personal data, referred to as PDAS (Personal Data Authorization System). By using PDAS, user data can be conveniently authorized by creating safe, undeniable, and tamper-proof data authorization contracts. Data requesters can acquire authorizations from multiple users as well as obtain integrated and authorized datasets.