Private Matching for Proximity-based Mobile Social Networking
Yanchao Zhang, ASU School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Friday, October 25, 2013
3–4 p.m.
Brickyard (BYENG) 210 [map]
Abstract
Proximity-based mobile social networking (PMSN) becomes increasingly popular due to the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets. It refers to the social interaction among physically proximate mobile users directly through the Bluetooth/WiFi interfaces on their smartphones or other mobile devices. As a valuable complement to web-based online social networking, PMSN enables more tangible face-to-face social interactions in public places, such as bars, airports, trains, and stadiums. Profile matching means two users comparing their personal profiles before real social interaction and is often the first step towards effective PMSN. It, however, conflicts with users’ growing privacy concerns about disclosing their personal profiles to complete strangers before deciding to interact with them. In this talk, I will discuss how to break the circular dependency between profile exchanging and social interaction via private matching, which allows two users to compare their personal profiles without disclosing their profiles to each other. Specifically, I will first introduce a private matching protocol based on homomorphic encryption, which is effective but computationally expensive. I will then discuss how to significantly reduce the computation overhead using a Bloom filter at the expense of moderate sacrifice in matching accuracy and privacy. Finally, I will discuss how to realize fine-grained private matching at different privacy levels.
Bio
Yanchao Zhang received the B.E. in Computer Science & Technology from Nanjing University of Posts & Telecom, China, in 1999, the M.E. in Computer Science & Technology from Beijing University of Posts & Telecom, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville in 2006. He joined Arizona State University in 2010 as an Associate Professor of School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. Before ASU, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology from 2006 to 2010. His research focuses on security and privacy issues in wireless/mobile networks and systems, wireless/mobile health, social networks, smart grids, and cloud computing. He is also interested in networking issues in emerging wireless/mobile systems. He is an editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and a technical editor of IEEE Wireless Communications. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2009.
An Information Assurance Center Seminar, open to public.
