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

移动网络已成为现代生活中不可或缺的一部分，为其用户提供无处不在的语音、文本和数据服务。然而，这种对移动电话的依赖引发了严重的隐私问题，因为移动网络运营商(MNO)有能力跟踪和分析用户。虽然5G系统通过使用隐藏的和临时的用户识别符提供了一些隐私保护，但那些可以访问MNO数据库的人仍然可以跟踪和分析用户。该项目通过开发一个功能齐全的匿名移动接入体系结构来解决这个问题，该体系结构允许合法的移动用户在不透露其真实身份的情况下访问网络。该架构旨在禁用使用匿名标识符的移动跟踪和分析，以确保同一用户在不同时间建立的连接不会被链接。该设计还支持关键的现有移动网络功能，包括在法律干预下识别用户设备(UE)和恢复其移动性历史，同时允许用户控制他们在自己的手机使用环境下面临的隐私风险级别。研究团队旨在通过将分散标识(DID)和匿名可验证凭据(VC)方案集成到5G认证和密钥协商(5G-AKA)协议中来实现上述目标。实现这种匿名移动接入架构的关键研究任务包括开发一种新型的安全被叫发现机制，利用DID来处理语音呼叫功能，支持用户责任并确保与现有合法监听要求的兼容性，通过服务网络实现灵活的计费和速率控制，阻止机器人通话诈骗，量化隐私风险和制定标识刷新策略，以及进行实验和验证。这项研究的成功结果将在使用移动网络的同时实现反跟踪能力，并为数字世界中的隐私增强技术提供一种新的思维方式。这项研究的结果将在网上公开提供，包括教程、讲座、出版物和开源软件。研究团队致力于积极扩大代表性不足群体的参与。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.