Source URL: https://soatok.blog/2024/11/21/key-transparency-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten/
Source: Hacker News
Title: Key Transparency and the Right to Be Forgotten
Feedly Summary: Comments
AI Summary and Description: Yes
Summary: The text outlines the complexities of developing an end-to-end encryption system for the Fediverse while ensuring compliance with GDPR, particularly Article 17, which deals with the right to erasure. It introduces concepts like Key Transparency and crypto-shredding as potential solutions for managing public keys securely while respecting users’ rights to have their data erased.
Detailed Description:
The author discusses the challenges and design decisions made in building an end-to-end encryption (E2EE) framework for the Fediverse, emphasizing the importance of compliance with GDPR, specifically focusing on users’ rights to erasure of personally identifiable information (PII). Important concepts and methodologies are introduced, highlighted by the following key points:
– **Key Transparency**:
– A crucial element in ensuring that all network participants can have a consistent view of who holds which public keys.
– Achieved through the use of Merkle trees and a centralized publisher model with decentralized verification, allowing robust querying of public keys.
– **GDPR Right to Erasure**:
– Article 17 of the GDPR creates challenges when designing a system that inherently retains historical data (like public keys).
– The text poses questions about how such immutable records interact with the right to be forgotten, suggesting that erasure in a blockchain context is complex and currently untested in legal terms.
– **Crypto Shredding**:
– Introduced as a potential solution to balance the demands of GDPR with the need for Key Transparency.
– Crypto shredding involves deleting the encryption key upon receiving a takedown request, which theoretically makes the associated data inaccessible without the key while maintaining compliance.
– **Implementation Risks**:
– Acknowledges the various risks involved in using crypto shredding, such as the possibility of dishonest behavior by public key directories and governance challenges concerning key management.
– Introduces the need for a verification mechanism to ensure that directory operators remain honest when handling user data.
– **Plaintext Commitments**:
– A mechanism proposed within the architecture to prevent dishonesty about the ciphertext by committing the plaintext using secure hash algorithms like Argon2id.
– The scheme aims to make plaintext indistinguishable from random values for adversaries without knowledge of the original plaintext once encrypted data is “shredded.”
– **Consideration of Zero-Knowledge Proofs**:
– Explores the idea of using zero-knowledge proofs for verifying data integrity without exposing sensitive data but concludes that challenges related to PII identification render it ineffective in this context.
– **Future Outlook**:
– The post concludes with a plan to finalize and iterate on the design, remaining open to feedback while recognizing that these are preliminary thoughts that invite further discussion on the complexities of balancing privacy rights and technology advancements.
Overall, this analysis provides security and compliance professionals with insights into the intricacy of developing secure, compliant systems within decentralized environments, emphasizing the need for innovative approaches to address legal frameworks such as GDPR.