Distributed data usage control for web applications: a social network implementation

Abstract

Usage control is concerned with how data is used after access to it has been granted. Respective enforcement mechanisms need to be implemented at different layers of abstraction in order to monitor or control data at and across all these layers. We present a usage control enforcement mechanism at the application layer. It is implemented for a common web browser and, as an example, is used to control data in a social network application. With the help of the mechanism, a data owner can, on the grounds of assigned trust values, prevent data from being printed, saved, copied&pasted, etc., after this data has been downloaded by other users.