Collaborative Research NeTS-FIND: Protecting User Privacy in a Network with Ubiquitous Computing Devices

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Modern wireless computing devices raise privacy concerns by leaking information that can be used to track and profile users. These privacy concerns are inherent to the low-level design of network and link-layer protocols and are, therefore, not addressed by the traditional approach of encrypting messages to ensure that their contents remain confidential. This project studies the question of how to protect user privacy in the context of a future Internet with rich connectivity to these wireless computing devices. The research focuses on designs that accomplish this without sacrificing the requirements for manageability and accountability.The research approach is to study existing systems such as 802.11 to characterize privacy threats and design improved network and link protocols that provide stronger privacy guarantees. Part of the project is to rethink names and addresses in their various forms to limit the disclosure of identity information only to trusted parties This includes names that conceal identity without compromising network functions, such as routing, that rely on them; name discovery and resolution protocols that do not reveal information across system layers.; techniques to detect implicit names exposed by end-points. Finally, the project also explores methods to expose the privacy status to users.Broader Impact: The combination of improving privacy and educating end-users about their privacy risks significantly and justifiably reduces the fears of Internet users. This makes the Internet a more widely accessible resource by allowing users to perform tasks, such as online-shopping, that they may not have been comfortable with before.