Privacy Of User Data Research Articles

Architecture Design of Distributed Encrypted Storage and Computing Based on Fog Computing

With the progress of informatization, the problems of data transmission delay, untimely response and theft and tampering of user privacy data are becoming increasingly prominent. This paper proposes a distributed encryption storage and computing architecture based on fog computing, which uses the scalability and low latency of fog computing to solve the problems of data silos and response delays. Blockchain technology is introduced to build decentralized storage to prevent data tampering and ensure secure transmission and sharing. Hierarchical privacy protection measures are designed to store data in a hierarchical and classified manner to accurately control the scope of information acquisition. This method has good application characteristics and can effectively solve the problems of government data collection and calculation.

Hierarchical Federated Learning-Based Intrusion Detection for In-Vehicle Networks

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are crucial for identifying cyberattacks on in-vehicle networks. To enhance IDS robustness and preserve user data privacy, researchers are increasingly adopting federated learning (FL). However, traditional FL-based IDSs depend on a single central aggregator, creating performance bottlenecks and introducing a single point of failure, thereby compromising robustness and scalability. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a Hierarchical Federated Learning (H-FL) framework to deploy and evaluate the performance of the IDS. The H-FL framework incorporates multiple edge aggregators alongside the central aggregator, mitigating single-point failure risks, improving scalability, and efficiently distributing computational load. We evaluate the proposed IDS using the H-FL framework on two car hacking datasets under realistic non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) data scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate that deploying the IDS within an H-FL framework can enhance the F1-score by up to 10.63%, addressing the limitations of edge-FL in dataset diversity and attack coverage. Notably, H-FL improved the F1-score in 16 out of 24 evaluated scenarios. By enabling the IDS to learn from diverse data, driving conditions, and evolving threats, this approach substantially strengthens cybersecurity in modern vehicular systems.

Multi platforms fake accounts detection based on federated learning

Identifying and mitigating fake profiles is an urgent issue during the age of widespread integration with social media platforms. this study addresses the challenge of fake profile detection on major social platforms-Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter). Employing a two-sided approach, it compares stacking model of machine learning algorithms with the federated learning. The research extends to four datasets, two Instagram datasets, one X dataset, and one Facebook dataset, reporting impressive accuracy metrics. Federated learning stands out for it is effectiveness in fake profile detection, prioritizing user data privacy. Results reveal Instagram fake/real dataset achieves 96% accuracy while Instagram human/bot dataset reaches 95% accuracy with federated learning. using the stacking model X’s fake/real dataset achieves 99.4% accuracy, and Facebook fake/real dataset reaches 99.8% accuracy using the same model. The study underscores the pivotal role of data privacy, positioning federated learning as an ethical choice. It compares the time efficiency of stacking and federated learning, with the former providing good performance in less time and the latter emphasizing data privacy but consuming more time. Results are benchmarked against related works, showcasing superior performance. The study contributes significantly to fake profile detection, offering adaptable solutions and insights.

Network alignment in multiplex social networks using the information diffusion dynamics

Modern social networking applications (SNAs) typically rely on independent data management systems, leading to fragmented user identities and the creation of data silos. This fragmentation impedes the development of unified user profiles and limits the effectiveness of cross-platform behavioural analysis and personalized recommendations. As the demand for integrated services grows, the need for a unified user identity across platforms becomes increasingly critical. However, existing identity integration methods face significant challenges, including data isolation, privacy risks, and a lack of universal standards. To address these issues, we propose a framework that utilizes node dynamics time-series data for network alignment in multiplex social networks. Our approach employs the UIU diffusion model to simulate information diffusion dynamics across multiple platforms and uses the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for network alignment. Crucially, our method relies solely on publicly available user information from different platforms, avoiding the need for access to private user data, thereby enhancing security. Experimental results demonstrate the model’s efficacy, achieving F1 scores of 100% for interlayer links and over 90% for intralayer links on real-world datasets. These findings highlight the model’s potential for applications in social influence analysis, community detection, and recommendation systems.

Reliable federated learning based on delayed gradient aggregation for intelligent connected vehicles

As an organic combination of the Internet of Vehicles and intelligent vehicles, Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICVs) have very high research and application value. Traditional data application methods require the local aggregation of sensitive user data, which poses a threat to user data privacy. Federated learning (FL) is a promising machine learning method that leverages distributed, personalized datasets to enhance performance while preserving user privacy. However, in mobile environments, unreliable client data can degrade the global model, reducing accuracy. Additionally, the mobility of ICVs can destabilize the training process, prolonging model updates and diminishing aggregation accuracy. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a dynamic asynchronous aggregation method that improves both reliability and training efficiency in FL for mobile networks. Therefore, it becomes crucial to find reliable aggregation of mobile device participation in FL tasks. To this end, we propose a reliable FL scheme, which only selects reliable mobile devices to participate in model aggregation to improve the generalization ability of the model. In addition, we design a dynamic asynchronous aggregation method based on reputation scores without affecting the model. Reduce model training time without compromising performance. Through experimental analysis, it is proved that this method can improve the reliability and effectiveness of FL tasks in mobile networks.

RFL-LSU: A Robust Federated Learning Approach with Localized Stepwise Updates

Distributed intelligence enables the widespread deployment of AI technology, greatly promoting the development of AI. Federated learning is a widely used distributed intelligence technology that allows iterative optimization of global model while protecting user data privacy. Currently, federated learning faces some security threats, as its open architecture provides attackers with opportunities to disrupt the learning process by submitting malicious updates or inserting backdoors. In this article, we propose a robust federated learning method to defend against potential malicious attacks. Specifically, we enhance the algorithm’s performance and stability by implementing localized stepwise updates on the client side and element-wise anomaly detection on the server side. We conducted experiments in a more realistic non-i.i.d. scenario and compared the results with other typical federated learning methods. Our results demonstrate that our approach exhibits strong robustness under non-i.i.d. data distributions, outperforming other methods in terms of test accuracy and resilience to attacks.

[formula omitted]: A blockchain-based secure access control management for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has widespread applications across many fields in which private and sensitive user or environmental data are sensed and shared. Most present-day IoT applications depend on centralized cloud servers for authentication and access control. Validating the identity of a user and determining the legitimacy of his/her access requests require multiple rounds of data communications over the untrusted Internet, exposing sensitive data to potential attacks. Thus, protecting these data from security and privacy attacks and ensuring legitimate access is imperative. To address this challenge, we adopt an emerging technology called blockchain to propose a decentralized security framework called BloAC. It ensures secure access control in IoT networks without the intervention of the back-end cloud. We have used the Hyperledger Fabric, an open-source, permissioned blockchain platform, for implementing a prototype system using customized attribute-based access control (ABAC) policies. We have performed simulated and real test bed-based experiments to illustrate that BloAC outperforms the cloud–server-based access control in latency and scalability, significantly reducing latency by up to 42.45% compared to cloud-based solutions. Finally, we conduct a security analysis to formally verify the ABAC policies used in BloAC and establish its robustness against attacks theoretically and using the AVISPA tool.

Telemedicine data secure sharing scheme based on heterogeneous federated learning

The forward triage characteristic of telemedicine highlights its importance again in the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemedicine can provide timely emergency response in the case of environmental or biological hazards, and the patient’s medical privacy data generated in this process can also accelerate the establishment of models for preventing and treating infectious diseases. However, the reuse process of telemedicine user privacy data based on federated learning also faces significant challenges. Differences in regions, economic levels, and grades lead to heterogeneous data and resource-constrained environments, seriously damaging the federated learning process. Besides, the weak password authentication of medical terminals and eavesdropping attacks on transmission channels may cause illegal access to terminals and platforms and leakage of sensitive data. This paper proposed a telemedicine data secure-sharing scheme based on heterogeneous federated learning. Specifically, we proposed a heterogeneous federated learning scheme with model alignment to guide telemedicine practice through the reuse of telemedicine data; in addition, we designed an SM9 threshold identity authentication scheme to guarantee that the patient’s medical privacy data is protected from leakage during the federated learning process. We evaluated our scheme using two third-party medical datasets. The evaluation results indicate that this scheme can still assist the federated learning process in resisting data heterogeneity and resource constraints with almost no performance cost.

Decentralized collaborative machine learning for protecting electricity data

In recent years, there has been a noticeable surge in electric power load due to economic development and improved living standards. The growing need for smart power solutions, such as leveraging user electricity data to forecast power peaks and utilizing power data statistics to enhance end-user services, has been on the rise. However, the misuse and unauthorized access of data have prompted stringent regulations to safeguard data integrity. This paper presents a novel decentralized collaborative machine learning framework aimed at predicting peak power loads while protecting the privacy of users’ power data. In this scheme, multiple users engage in collaborative machine learning training within a peer-to-peer network free from a centralized server, with the objective of predicting peak power loads without compromising users’ local data privacy. The proposed approach leverages blockchain technology and advanced cryptographic techniques, including multi-key homomorphic encryption and consistent hashing. Key contributions of this framework include the development of a secure dual-aggregate node aggregation algorithm and the establishment of a verifiable process within a decentralized architecture. Experimental validation has been conducted to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme, demonstrating its potential to address the challenges associated with predicting peak power loads securely and preserving user data privacy.

Decoupling Online Ride-Hailing Services: A Privacy Protection Scheme Based on Decentralized Identity

Online ride-hailing services have become a vital component of urban transportation worldwide due to their convenience and flexibility. However, the expansion of their user base has dramatically heightened the risks of user privacy information leakage. Among these risks, the privacy leakage problem caused by the direct correlation between user (driver and passenger) identity information and location-based ride information is of particular concern. This paper proposes a novel privacy protection scheme for ride-hailing services. In this scheme, decentralized identities are employed for user authentication, separating the identity registration service from the ride-hailing platform, thereby preventing the platform from obtaining user privacy data. The scheme also employs a fuzzy matching strategy based on location Points of Interest (POI) and a ciphertext-policy attribute-based hybrid encryption algorithm to hide the user’s precise location and restrict access to location information. Crucially, the scheme achieves the complete decoupling of identity registration services and location-based ride services on the ride-hailing platform, ensuring that users’ real identities and ride data cannot be directly associated, effectively protecting user privacy. Within the decoupled architecture, regulatory authorities are established to handle emergencies within ride-hailing services. Through simulation experiments and security analysis, this scheme is demonstrated to be both feasible and practical, providing a new privacy protection solution for the ride-hailing industry.

A Survey on User Profiling, Data Collection, and Privacy Issues of Internet Services

Users are usually required to share several types of data, including their personal data, as different providers strive to offer high-quality services that are often tailored to end-users’ preferences. However, when it comes to personalizing services, there are several challenges for meeting user’s needs and preferences. For content personalization and delivery of services to end users, services typically create user profiles. When user profiles are created, user data is collected and organized to meet the personalization requirements of the services. In this paper, we provide an overview of current research activities that focus on user profiling and ways to protect user data privacy. The paper presents different types of data that services collect from users on examples of commonly used Internet services. It proposes data categorization as a prerequisite for controlled data sharing between users and Internet services. Furthermore, it discusses how data generalization can be used for anonymization purposes on examples of the proposed data categories. Finally, it gives an overview of the privacy framework being developed and gives guidelines for future work focusing on data generalization methods in order to reduce user privacy risks.

5G Communication Network and Federated Learning for College Accounting Informatization Teaching

At present, the social economy is entering the information age represented by computer, communication technology and network technology as the core, and the continuous development of modern information technology will certainly have a great impact on the teaching mode, content and methods of traditional accounting computerization. We aim to improve the existing higher vocational accounting teaching mode by building a multi-integrated teaching mode through federated learning based on 5G communication network as an environment for efficient information transfer. In addition, we develop a joint optimization strategy for priority-dependent task offloading, wireless bandwidth, and computational power in a distributed machine learning approach to ensure that more resources are allocated to users with higher priority while protecting user data privacy and reducing learning overhead. We have conducted extensive simulation experiments for both environments, and these simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed solutions for different problems from different perspectives.

Navigating the Digital Twin Network landscape: A survey on architecture, applications, privacy and security

In recent years, immense developments have occurred in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the spread of broadband and ubiquitous connectivity technologies. This has led to the development and commercialization of Digital Twin (DT) technology. The widespread adoption of DT has resulted in a new network paradigm called Digital Twin Networks (DTNs), which orchestrate through the networks of ubiquitous DTs and their corresponding physical assets. DTNs create virtual twins of physical objects via DT technology and realize the co-evolution between physical and virtual spaces through data processing, computing, and DT modeling. The high volume of user data and the ubiquitous communication systems in DTNs come with their own set of challenges. The most serious issue here is with respect to user data privacy and security because users of most applications are unaware of the data that they are sharing with these platforms and are naive in understanding the implications of the data breaches. Also, currently, there is not enough literature that focuses on privacy and security issues in DTN applications. In this survey, we first provide a clear idea of the components of DTNs and the common metrics used in literature to assess their performance. Next, we offer a standard network model that applies to most DTN applications to provide a better understanding of DTN’s complex and interleaved communications and the respective components. We then shed light on the common applications where DTNs have been adapted heavily and the privacy and security issues arising from the DTNs. We also provide different privacy and security countermeasures to address the previously mentioned issues in DTNs and list some state-of-the-art tools to mitigate the issues. Finally, we provide some open research issues and problems in the field of DTN privacy and security.

Pivot: Panoramic-image-based VR User Authentication against Side-Channel Attacks

With metaverse attracting increasing attention from both academic and industry, the application of virtual reality (VR) has extended beyond 3D immersive viewing/gaming to a broader range of areas, such as banking, shopping, tourism, education, etc., which involves a growing amount of sensitive and private user data into VR systems. However, with current password-based user authentication schemes in mainstream VR devices, studies demonstrate that side-channel attacks can pose a severe threat to VR user privacy. To mitigate the threat, we propose a novel Panoramic-image-based VR user authentication system, i.e., Pivot , to defend against such attacks, yet maintain high usability. Specifically, in Pivot , we design an image-random-pivoting-based user interaction mechanism to assist users in quickly and securely selecting memorable points of interest in a panoramic image. Then an image region segmentation algorithm is designed to automatically scatter the points to regions to form the customized graphic password for the user, which could ensure a sufficiently large password space and also reduce the near-region point misclicks. Afterward, the region indexes are used to generate the hashed password for authentication. Both theoretical security analysis and extensive user studies demonstrate that Pivot is secure and user-friendly in practice.

Fairness-Aware Federated Learning with Real-Time Bias Detection and Correction

Federated Learning (FL) enables collaborative model training across decentralized devices while preserving user data privacy. However, disparities in data distributions among clients can lead to biased models that perform unfairly across different demographic groups. This paper proposes a fairness-aware Federated Learning framework equipped with real-time bias detection and correction mechanisms. Our approach adjusts model updates to address biases detected at local client levels before aggregating them at the central server. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through empirical evaluations on multiple datasets, showcasing significant improvements in fairness and model accuracy. Our proposed framework involves a multi-tiered approach to ensure fairness in the model training process. Firstly, it employs local bias detection techniques at the client level to identify disparities in model performance across different groups. Clients then utilize bias correction mechanisms to adjust their model updates, addressing any detected biases before sending updates to the central server. The central server aggregates these bias-corrected updates, ensuring that the global model benefits from equitable learning while maintaining overall performance.

GUIDANCE FOR GENERATIVE AI IN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH" FOR TEACHERS

From the book title is "Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research" for teachers, or this book serves as part of the guidelines for using Generative AI (GenAI) in the fields of education and research. This book was written by W. Holmes and F. Miao in 2023. This book addresses the rapid emergence of publicly available Generative AI tools, with the release of new versions outpacing the establishment of national regulatory frameworks. The lack of national regulations on GenAI in most countries raises concerns about user data privacy and leaves educational institutions unprotected and largely unprepared to scrutinize these tools. UNESCO has issued the first global guidelines on GenAI in education, aiming to support countries in taking immediate action, formulating long-term policies, and developing human capacity to ensure that people can effectively use AI and enhance their work with Generative AI.

Improved Scheme for Data Aggregation of Distributed Oracle for Intelligent Internet of Things.

Oracle is a data supply mechanism that provides real-world data for blockchain. It serves as a bridge between blockchain and the IoT world, playing a crucial role in solving problems such as data sharing and device management in the IoT field. The main challenge at this stage is determining how to achieve data privacy protection in distributed Oracle machines to safeguard the value hidden in data on the blockchain. In this paper, we propose an improved scheme for distributed Oracle data aggregation based on Paillier encryption algorithm, which achieves end-to-end data privacy protection from devices to users. To address the issue of dishonest distributed Oracle machines running out of funds, we have designed an algorithm called PICA (Paillier-based InChain Aggregation). Based on the aggregation on the Chainlink chain and the Paillier encryption algorithm, random numbers are introduced to avoid the problem of dishonest Oracle machines running out of funds. We use the traffic coverage method to solve the problem of exposed request paths in distributed Oracle machines. Simulation and experimental results show that in small and medium-sized IoT application scenarios with 10,000 data nodes, each additional false request in a single request will result in a delay of about 2 s in data acquisition and can achieve a request response time of 20 s. The proposed method can achieve user data privacy protection.

Application and Optimization of Multi-Factor Authentication and Biometric Technology in Power Grid Energy Network Access Control

With the sudden development in electronic and network technology, the power grid has emerged in several evolved nations and other areas with faster development. Energy storage can enhance the stability, resiliency and efficiency of the electric smart grid. The power grid transfers energy via bidirectional control of energy and information flow. In the power grid, a smart meter is an important component that is deployed on the user side to determine the consumption of energy regularly. However, the data about the usage of electricity leads to the leakage of the private information of the user, which threatens the privacy of the user. The attackers can change the in-transit message induce wrong information and sometimes cause disastrous action. Hence, it is important to assure data security and privacy of users by conducting authentication in power grid communication. An optimization technique named Puzzle Optimization Algorithm (POA) is designed for the efficient privacy-preserving aggregation approach with multi-factor authentication and a biometric scheme. Also, optimal key-based Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is used to encrypt the sensitive data that are securely stored. Authentication offers high security and texture analysis. In the registration phase, the privacy information of the person with their biometrics is the important feature point of the individual unique identification. Additionally, the designed approach is compared with other existing optimizations to analyse the functionality of the implemented technique. The simulation outcome defined that the suggested technique enhances user privacy and information security than other standard approaches.

A Secure Authentication Scheme with Local Differential Privacy in Edge Intelligence-Enabled VANET

Edge intelligence is a technology that integrates edge computing and artificial intelligence to achieve real-time and localized model generation. Thus, users can receive more precise and personalized services in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) using edge intelligence. However, privacy and security challenges still exist, because sensitive data of the vehicle user is necessary for generating a high-accuracy AI model. In this paper, we propose an authentication scheme to preserve the privacy of user data in edge intelligence-enabled VANETs. The proposed scheme can establish a secure communication channel using fuzzy extractor, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and physical unclonable function (PUF) technology. The proposed data upload process can provide privacy of the data using local differential privacy and symmetric key encryption. We validate the security robustness of the proposed scheme using informal analysis, the Real-Or-Random (ROR) model, and the Scyther tool. Moreover, we evaluate the computation and communication efficiency of the proposed and related schemes using Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic Cryptographic Library (MIRACL) software development kit (SDK). We simulate the practical deployment of the proposed scheme using network simulator 3 (NS-3). Our results show that the proposed scheme has a performance improvement of 10∼48% compared to the state-of-the-art research. Thus, we can demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides comprehensive and secure communication for data management in edge intelligence-enabled VANET environments.

Enhancing privacy policy comprehension through Privacify: A user-centric approach using advanced language models

As the digital age advances, the collection, usage, and dissemination of personal data have become critical concerns for users, regulators, and the cybersecurity community. Questions surrounding the extent of identifiable data collection, its usage, sharing, selling, and the mechanisms of consent are increasingly central to discussions on user data privacy. These issues highlight the need for effective management and comprehension of privacy policies. To this end, this paper introduces Privacify— a production-ready web application designed to enhance the accessibility and understandability of privacy policies, thus empowering users to make more informed decisions about their data. At its backend, Privacify leverages a combination of text segmentation, summarization using Large Language Model (LLM), and map-reduce technologies to facilitate BASE analysis for single-document insights and WRT and REV for comprehensive cross-document analysis. Designed with a user-centric approach, Privacify features an intuitive interface that presents all relevant user privacy information in easy-to-understand language, complete with a detailed explainability component. This design not only simplifies privacy policies but also aids users in effortlessly navigating complex privacy terms, significantly boosting their ability to protect and manage their personal information. Our evaluation employs robust methodologies, including reliability and accuracy assessments, alongside rigorous functionality verification through ROUGE metrics and human analysis, validating the system’s efficacy and performance. Privacify’s architecture promotes scalability, replicability, and seamless deployment, advancing the domain of user data protection through improved privacy comprehension.