{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T11:35:34Z","timestamp":1777635334978,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,28]],"date-time":"2025-02-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740700800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"FCT-Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia, I.P.","award":["UIDB\/50008"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/50008"]}]},{"name":"FCT-Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia, I.P.","award":["101095933"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101095933"]}]},{"name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme","award":["UIDB\/50008"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/50008"]}]},{"name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme","award":["101095933"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101095933"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Assessing privacy within data-driven software is challenging due to its subjective nature and the diverse array of privacy-enhancing technologies. A simplistic personal\/non-personal data classification fails to capture the nuances of data specifications and potential privacy vulnerabilities. Robust, privacy-focused data categorization is vital for a deeper understanding of data characteristics and the evaluation of potential privacy risks. We introduce a framework for Privacy-sensitive Data Categorization (PsDC), which accounts for data inference from multiple sources and behavioral analysis. Our approach uses a hierarchical, multi-tiered tree structure, encompassing direct data categorization, dynamic tags, and structural attributes. PsDC is a data-categorization model designed for integration with the DevPrivOps methodology and for use in privacy-quantification models. Our analysis demonstrates its applicability in network-management infrastructure, service and application deployment, and user-centered design interfaces. We illustrate how PsDC can be implemented in these scenarios to mitigate privacy risks. We also highlight the importance of proactively reducing privacy risks by ensuring that developers and users understand the privacy \u201cvalue\u201d of data.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info16030185","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,28]],"date-time":"2025-02-28T04:28:18Z","timestamp":1740716898000},"page":"185","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Proactive Data Categorization for Privacy in DevPrivOps"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7969-8813","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catarina","family":"Silva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Electr\u00f3nica, Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es e Inform\u00e1tica, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, 3810-164 Aveiro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5029-6191","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jo\u00e3o P.","family":"Barraca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Electr\u00f3nica, Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es e Inform\u00e1tica, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, 3810-164 Aveiro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6832-9417","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"Salvador","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Electr\u00f3nica, Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es e Inform\u00e1tica, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"},{"name":"Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.004.2300405","article-title":"Privacy-Based Deployments: The Role of DevPrivOps in 6G Mobile Networks","volume":"62","author":"Silva","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.1109\/MSEC.2022.3201585","article-title":"Contextual Integrity, Explained: A More Usable Privacy Definition","volume":"21","author":"Malkin","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Secur. Priv."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1491","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.23787","article-title":"Types of personal information categorization: Rigid, fuzzy, and flexible","volume":"68","author":"Oh","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"RIGOUROUS (2023). Design Plan of the Multi-Domain Automated Security Orchestration, Trust-Management, and Deployment, UWS."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"792","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2017.11.045","article-title":"Towards IoT data classification through semantic features","volume":"86","author":"Antunes","year":"2018","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mason, S. (2024). Exploring Privacy from a Philosophical Perspective: Conceptual and Normative Dimensions. Human Privacy in Virtual and Physical Worlds: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, Springer Nature.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-031-51063-2_2"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Piper, D. (2024, December 06). Data Protection Laws of the World. Available online: https:\/\/www.dlapiperdataprotection.com\/."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hoepman, J.H. (2021). Privacy Is Hard and Seven Other Myths: Achieving Privacy Through Careful Design, MIT Press.","DOI":"10.7551\/mitpress\/12587.001.0001"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"123","DOI":"10.1007\/s13740-020-00116-5","article-title":"An ontology for privacy requirements via a systematic literature review","volume":"9","author":"Gharib","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Data Semant."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pandit, H.J., Esteves, B., Krog, G.P., Ryan, P., Golpayegani, D., and Flake, J. (2024, January 11\u201315). Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV)\u2014Version 2. Proceedings of the 23rd International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2024), Baltimore, MD, USA.","DOI":"10.31219\/osf.io\/ma9ue"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gharib, M., Mylopoulos, J., and Giorgini, P. (2020, January 23\u201325). COPri-A core ontology for privacy requirements engineering. Proceedings of the Research Challenges in Information Science: 14th International Conference, RCIS 2020, Limassol, Cyprus. Proceedings 14.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-50316-1_28"},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Sun, Q., and Xu, Y. (2019, January 16\u201320). Research on Privacy Concerns of Social Network Users. 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Proceedings of the SCSP, Prague, Czech Republic.","DOI":"10.1109\/SCSP54748.2022.9792557"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bdr.2017.11.001","article-title":"What are data? A categorization of the data sensitivity spectrum","volume":"12","author":"Rumbold","year":"2018","journal-title":"Big Data Res."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5402","DOI":"10.21105\/joss.05402","article-title":"PII-Codex: A Python library for PII detection, categorization, and severity assessment","volume":"8","author":"Rosado","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Open Source Softw."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102488","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cose.2021.102488","article-title":"k-Anonymity in practice: How generalisation and suppression affect machine learning classifiers","volume":"111","author":"Henzl","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Secur."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"D\u00edaz, J.S.P., and Garc\u00eda, A.L. (August, January 31). Comparison of machine learning models applied on anonymized data with different techniques. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience (CSR), Venice, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSR57506.2023.10224917"},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Silva, C., Barraca, J.P., and Salvador, P. (2025, January 28\u201330). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Differential Privacy Against Profiling (Submitted). Proceedings of the 2025 The International Conference on Consumer Technology (ICCT-Europe 2025), Algarve, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Oprescu, A., Misdorp, S., and van Elsen, K. (2022, January 13\u201317). Energy cost and accuracy impact of k-anonymity. Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S), Plovdiv, Bulgaria.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICT4S55073.2022.00018"}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/16\/3\/185\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T16:44:27Z","timestamp":1760028267000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/16\/3\/185"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,28]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3]]}},"alternative-id":["info16030185"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info16030185","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,28]]}}}