Towards quantifying and defining privacy metrics for online users

With personal information being stored on information systems, there exists a need to determine the amount of information that is obtainable for an individual. In this paper, the authors work toward measuring the personal information of an individual as stored within different levels within multiple information systems. The proposal takes into account different identity elements and assigned a privacy score and weighting to it. This is done in order to quantify an individual's privacy. A total privacy score can then be assigned to an individual for them to ascertain what their level of 'visibility' is on various information systems accessible on and off the Internet. A user can then make use of this score to further a potential risk assessment of their personal information.