Towards an integrated privacy framework for HIPAA-compliant Web services

A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable application-to-application interaction over the Internet. Web services are based on a set of XML standards, such as universal description, discovery and integration (UDDI), Web services description language (WSDL), and simple object access protocol (SOAP). Based on prior studies, this paper proposes a vocabulary-based Web services privacy framework for protecting health data privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

1. Introduction

A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable application-to-application interaction over the Internet. Web services are based on a set of XML standards, such as Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). There has been an increasing amount of discussion recently about a Web services privacy framework in both industry and the research community. Up to this moment, no comprehensive solutions to the various privacy issues in Web services have been defined and developed yet.