An Agent Infrastructure for Privacy-Enhancing Agent-Based E-commerce Applications

Privacy is of crucial importance in order for agent-based e-commerce applications to be of broad use. Privacy can be enhanced minimizing data identifiability, i.e., the degree by which personal information can be directly attributed to a particular individual. However, minimizing data identifiability may directly impact other crucial issues in agent-based e-commerce, such as accountability, trust, and reputation. In this paper, we present an agent infrastructure for agent-based e-commerce applications. This agent infrastructure enhances privacy without compromising accountability, trust, and reputation.