Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Ubiquitous network connectivity has made possible the deployment of network services that can be accessed any time from anywhere. The goal of this research is the design, implementation, and evaluation of privacy-enhancing technologies that allow people to benefit from this new communication paradigm, but without these people having to worry about possible privacy violations. The proposed research has four main thrusts: 1) developing practical protocols for accessing data stores such that the owner of a data store cannot learn which of his/her data records are being accessed. For example, these protocols will allow people to learn information relevant to their current location without revealing their (maybe sensitive) location to the information provider; 2) developing efficient protocols for accessing a network service such that a user's IP address will remain hidden from the service. An IP address can reveal sensitive information about a user, such as his/her location or company association, so our protocols will protect the user's privacy; 3) developing privacy-enhancing technologies for location-based social networking services. Our protocols will allow nearby users to interact with each other. However, as opposed to traditional social networking sites, our protocols will not require a centralized site that can continuously learn detailed information about its users (e.g., their location); 4) developing a privacy-preserving architecture for location proofs. Location proofs enable people to prove that they are (or were) at a particular location, which makes possible applications such as location-based access control or location-based deals. Our architecture will allow people to collect proofs without having to worry about becoming trackable. Location intelligence, which is the provisioning of information about specific locations to customers, has been getting much commercial attention recently. For example, our industry partner, Pitney Bowes, offers such a service. With the help of the technologies developed in the proposed research, it will become possible to provide location intelligence services in both a more privacy-friendly way and a more secure way, which in turn will make these services more attractive and profitable.