Personal Cloudlets: Implementing a User-centric Datastore with Privacy Aware Access Control for Cloud-Based Data Platforms

Abstract

This paper presents OPENi's Personal Cloudlets framework as a novel approach to enhancing users control and privacy over their data on a data driven, cloud-based platform. We introduce the EU FP7 funded project OPENi, the OPENi concept, and the research objectives that influenced the design and implementation of OPENi's Personal Cloudlet Framework. We outline OPENi's architecture and describe how through the use of REST based endpoints, object-based access control, OPENi Types, and stateless JSON Web Token (JWT) it allows users share, reuse, and control access to their data across many mobile applications while maintaining cloud scalability. Furthermore we describe how a number of the Personal Cloudlet Framework's features enhance a users privacy and control, including: the User Dashboard, the Privacy Preserving Data Aggregator, and the fine grained access control mechanism.