A Framework to Provide Anonymity in Reputation Systems

H. Miranda and L. Rodrigues.

Proceedings of the 3rd Annual International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Networks and Services (MOBIQUITOUS 2006). San Jose, California, July 2006. (Research-in-Progress Paper)

Abstract

In ubiquitous networks, the multiple devices carried by an user may unintentionally expose information about her habits or preferences. This information leakage can compromise the users' right to privacy. A common approach to increase privacy is to hide the user real identity under a pseudonym. Unfortunately, pseudonyms may interfere with the reputation systems that are often used to assert the reliability of the information provided by the participants in the network.

This paper presents a framework for combining anonymity with reputation and shows that it can be configured to provide a desired degree of balance between these two conflicting goals. The proposed solution leverages on well-known cryptographic techniques, such as public key infrastructure and blind signatures.

Also available extended report (pdf) .

Luís Rodrigues