---
id: "papers-acdc-affordances-confidential-data-protection"
type: "paper"
type_label: "Papers and paper collections"
title: "ACDC Affordances for Confidential (Sensitive) Data Protection and Management"
maintainer: "Samuel M. Smith (attributed by the repository; the document names no author)"
authors:
  - "Samuel M. Smith (attributed by the repository"
  - "the document names no author)"
date: "2026-01"
year: 2026
reading_level: "practitioner"
reading_level_label: "Practitioner"
reading_level_meaning: "architects, product people and adopters who know identity systems"
evidence: "informative"
evidence_meaning: "an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite"
status: "quiet"
status_meaning: "no change in six to eighteen months; still correct"
access: "public"
access_meaning: "anyone with the link"
topics:
  - "theory"
  - "governance"
roles:
  - "security-architect"
  - "standards-policy"
  - "researcher"
source_url: "https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/whitepapers/ACDCConfidentialDataManagement.md"
source_license: null
source_license_note: null
found_on: "smith-papers"
kerisse_credit: false
abstract_license: "CC BY 4.0"
abstract_license_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
abstract_attribution: "KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/)"
last_checked: "2026-10-15"
kskb_url: "https://kskb.dev/cards/papers-acdc-affordances-confidential-data-protection/"
kskb_app_url: "https://kskb.dev/#item/papers-acdc-affordances-confidential-data-protection"
kskb_record_url: "https://kskb.dev/data/kskb/resources/papers-acdc-affordances-confidential-data-protection"
kskb_markdown_url: "https://kskb.dev/export/cards/papers-acdc-affordances-confidential-data-protection.md"
---

# ACDC Affordances for Confidential (Sensitive) Data Protection and Management

A short working paper arguing that data shared over the internet should be managed under established confidential-data practices rather than the label of privacy, and that the graduated disclosure mechanisms of Authentic Chained Data Containers (ACDCs) support those practices. It sets out a three-party model of data sharing and ends with draft notes on bulk issuance using blinded sparse Merkle trees. For readers working on data governance and credential design.

Labels: reading level Practitioner; evidence informative (an author's paper, deck, tutorial or post explaining the suite).
Source: https://github.com/SmithSamuelM/Papers/blob/master/whitepapers/ACDCConfidentialDataManagement.md (license not recorded).
The abstract is KSKB's own text under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; credit KSKB, the KERISuite Knowledge Base (https://kskb.dev/).