Access control for web data: models and policy languages

The web has made easily available an enormous amount of information in digital form and has facilitated the exchange of such information. In this environment, access control is a primary concern. The key issue is how to trade-off between maximizing the sharing of information and enforcing a controlled access to web data. In this paper we start by outlining which are the main access control requirements of web data. Then, we review researches carried on in the field, by mainly focusing on XML. Finally, we discuss policy languages for the semantic web, and outline which are the main research directions in this field.