Usage Control Specification, Enforcement, and Robustness: A Survey

Abstract: The management of data and digital assets poses various challenges, including the need to adhere to legal requirements with respect to personal data protection and copyright. Usage control technologies could be used by software platform providers to manage data and digital assets responsibly and to provide more control to data and digital asset owners. In order to better understand the potential of various usage control proposals, we collate and categorize usage control requirements, compare the predominant usage control frameworks based on said requirements, and identify existing challenges and opportunities that could be used to guide future research directions.