Abstract

A key challenge for the ubiquitous computing community is the development of systems that will allow users seamlessly and securely interact with the service-rich environment in which they are present. The open nature of many interfaces via which users interact with such environments heightens the need for privacy protection measures. In this paper we describe the M-Zones Access Control (MAC) process, which, in addition to providing role-based access control and access rights delegation, harnesses context information to automatically re-configure resources in response to changes to the set of users physically present in the environment. An important feature of the described approach is that it allows users define personal policies embodying their preferences for resource re-configuration in the presence of other named individuals, or individuals with specified attributes.