The FINANCIAL -- A prototype system that aims to turn off the deluge of personal data that floods the internet and threatens people's security and identity will be unveiled at LSE today (Tuesday 29 June).

The EnCoRe (Ensuring Consent and Revocation) project, a consortium of six leading UK IT industrial and academic institutions examining the issue of personal privacy, will present ts prototype system, and the legal, social and business process research that has led to it, at a press briefing at 4.30pm. The event will be followed by a public debate that is open to all on Control of Your Personal Data: who, how much, why? at 6.30pm in the New Academic Building.

At present, people have no way of controlling how their personal information is used or ensuring that it is deleted, when requested, from databases. Often such details are handed to third parties, making the control of personal data even harder.

EnCoRe comprises a team of e-privacy experts from Hewlett-Packard's Systems Security Lab in Bristol with WMG at the University of Warwick, QinetiQ, HW Communications, Oxford University's HeLEX Centre, and LSE. It aims to create a solution to the increasing problems caused by the uncontrolled flow of personal data and to to develop technology and systems that allow individuals to control their data, while at the same time being  as easy and intuitive to use as turning a tap on or off.

The EnCoRe technical system comprises a set of privacy-enhancing technologies, such as policy-driven privacy-aware access control and obligation management, within an overall technical architecture. This has been derived from studies of the personal data management requirements of ordinary people, business processes and the law.

Pete Bramhall of Hewlett-Packard, the project co-ordinator, said: 'The successful construction of this first prototype of the EnCoRe system marks the conclusion of our first case study, and we now plan to enhance and extend the social science and technology research with two more case studies over the next 18 months.'

The briefing will be followed by a public panel discussion, Control of Your Personal Data: who, how much, why? Five privacy experts from civil society, industry, the public sector, law and parliament will examine the issues that EnCoRe is addressing at 6.30pm on Tuesday 29 June at LSE.

Related Stories

• British Council report shows that culture means business for the UK
• Radical action required for recovery, according to business executives
• European Union must break out of ideological straitjacket