GrIP - A profile control mechanism for user privacy protection and quality of personalization services

In an era in which customization is a growing feature of online services, personalization services are invented to provide users a single portal where they can access selected contents. Designed to reduce information overload, improve efficiency, and increase the use of certain contents, these services must first obtain users' personal information in order to provide tailor-made benefits. However, users are commonly deterred by this request due to privacy concerns, and thus are unable to enjoy the benefits these services have to offer. In this paper we propose a profile control mechanism GrIP (Granularity Control Mechanism based on Person Identification Probability) to manage the number and granularity of personal information disclosed to services. By increasing user privacy protection while ensuring quality of service, this mechanism allows personalization services to better serve their users and users to better enjoy the services.