Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: An Anti-tracking and Robocall-free Architecture for Next-G Mobile Networks

移动的网络已经成为现代生活的组成部分，向其用户提供对语音、文本和数据服务的无处不在的访问。然而，这种对移动的电话的依赖引起了严重的隐私问题，因为移动的网络运营商（MNO）具有跟踪和分析用户的能力。虽然5G系统通过使用隐藏和临时的用户标识符提供了一些隐私保护，但那些可以访问MNO数据库的用户仍然可以跟踪和分析用户。这个项目解决了这个问题，通过开发一个功能齐全的匿名移动的访问架构，允许合法的移动的用户访问网络，而不透露他们的真实的身份。该架构旨在禁用使用匿名标识符的移动的跟踪和分析，确保同一用户在不同时间建立的连接无法链接。该设计还支持关键的现任移动的网络功能，包括用户设备（UE）的识别和在法律的干预下其移动性历史的恢复，同时让用户控制他们在自己的移动的手机使用环境下所面临的隐私风险水平。研究团队旨在通过集成分散式标识符（DID）和匿名可验证凭据（VC）来实现上述目标5G认证和密钥协商（5G-AKA）协议。实现这种匿名移动的接入架构的关键研究任务包括开发一种新的安全被叫方发现机制，利用DID来处理语音呼叫功能，支持用户问责制并确保与现有合法侦听要求的兼容性，通过服务网络实现灵活的计费和速率控制，禁用robocall诈骗，量化隐私风险并开发标识符刷新策略，并进行实验和验证。这项研究的成功结果将使反跟踪能力，同时使用移动的网络，并提供了一种新的方式来思考隐私增强技术在数字世界。这项研究的成果将在网上公开，包括教程，讲座，出版物和开源软件。该研究团队致力于积极扩大代表性不足的群体的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mobile networks have become integral to modern life, providing their users ubiquitous access to voice, text, and data services. However, this reliance on mobile phones has raised serious privacy concerns, as mobile network operators (MNOs) have the ability to track and profile users. While the 5G system offers some privacy protection through the use of concealed and temporary subscriber identifiers, those with access to MNO databases can still track and profile users. This project addresses this problem by developing a fully functional anonymous mobile access architecture that allows legitimate mobile subscribers to access the network without revealing their real identity. The architecture is designed to disable mobile tracking and profiling using anonymous identifiers ensuring that connections made by the same user at different times cannot be linked. The design also supports critical incumbent mobile network functions, including the identification of a user equipment (UE) and recovery of its mobility history under legal intervention, while giving users control over the level of privacy they risk under their own mobile phone use contexts.The research team aims to achieve the above goal by integrating decentralized identifiers (DID) and anonymous verifiable credential (VC) schemes into the 5G authentication and key agreement (5G-AKA) protocol. Key research tasks to realize this anonymous mobile access architecture include developing a novel secure callee discovery mechanism leveraging DID to handle the voice call function, supporting user accountability and ensuring compatibility with existing lawful interception requirements, enabling flexible billing and rate control by service network, disabling robocall scams, quantifying privacy risks and developing identifier refreshing strategies, and conducting experiments and validation. Successful results for this research will enable anti-tracking capabilities while using mobile networks and offer a new way of thinking about privacy enhancement technologies in the digital world. The outcomes of this research will be made publicly available online, including tutorials, talks, publications, and open-source software. The research team is committed to actively expanding the involvement of underrepresented groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.