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<p>Dear midPoint community,</p>
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<p>Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome <a
href="https://docs.evolveum.com/midpoint/midprivacy/">midPrivacy</a>,
our data protection initiative. Identity management and data
protection go hand in hand, one cannot really reach its full
potential without the other. However, most identity management
systems were a bit short on the data protection side. Therefore
we have decided that it is the right time to do something about
it.<span id="more-6485"></span></p>
<p>MidPoint is a second-generation identity management platform.
Unlike most IDM systems designed in 2000s, midPoint was designed
with data protection in mind. We know quite well that data
protection is not just the legal requirement, it is the right
thing to do. We have been experimenting with some data
protection prototypes in 2017 during the GDPR countdown, hoping
that the industry will pick up data protection features. It
looks like we were a bit early with that. However, we think that
<i>now</i> is the right time to roll it out.</p>
<p>Even tough we have been working on data protection for some
time, we have figured that it is the right time to give this
initiative a name and visibility. <i>MidPrivacy</i> aims at
turning midPoint into <i>privacy-enhancing</i> identity
management platform. This is obviously a long-term goal that has
to be divided to smaller steps.</p>
<p>The first step of midPrivacy initiative is implementation of <a
href="https://docs.evolveum.com/midpoint/midprivacy/phases/01-data-provenance-prototype/">data
provenance</a> features. Simply speaking, data provenance is
about knowing the origin of data. We need to know where the data
came from and how they were processed. This can give us
indication whether the data were processed in accord with the
policies or whether we have no right to process the data and
they should be erased. Data provenance is essential for
accountability and transparency of data processing.</p>
<p>But data provenance is much deeper that that. It is also just a
first step, one of the foundation stones of other data
protection features. We plan to extend midPoint functionality in
many ways. Data protection is quite complex topic, but data
protection concepts need to be presented to ordinary users.
Therefore good user experience is quite a challenge. We would
like to tackle data portability issues. Data protection system
needs to be secure and we have already made a lot of <a
href="https://evolveum.com/midpoint-went-through-eu-fossa2-bug-bounty/">effort</a>
to make midPoint secure. But when it comes to security there is
always need for improvements. We would also like to improve the
documentation, make recommendations, document best practice,
provide examples. And of course, there are really attractive
pieces such as “holistic” consent management.</p>
<p>There is much to do to make this dream a reality. And of
course, it all depends on funding. We will invest part of our
profits to fund this initiative. However, these are strange and
difficult times. We have to look for other opportunities for
funding. We are extremely happy that we were able to secure
funding for the data provenance phase of midPrivacy from the
NGI_TRUST program. I would like to express my dearest thanks for
everyone involved in the NGI programs, this made a huge
difference for us. We hope to secure more funding for at least a
couple additional phases of midPrivacy initiative. But any kind
of funding is more than appreciated. We will be grateful for
subscription money, sponsoring or donations. We strongly believe
that data protection and privacy are worthy goals and we will do
our best to achieve them.</p>
<p>This project has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the
NGI_TRUST grant agreement no 825618.</p>
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<p>(Reposted from <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://evolveum.com/introducing-midprivacy-initiative/">Evolveum
blog</a>)</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Radovan Semancik
Software Architect
evolveum.com</pre>
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