With a growing demand for spectrum availability, spectrum sharing has become a high-profile solution to overcrowding. In order to enable spectrum sharing between incumbent/primary and secondary users, incumbents must have spectrum protection and privacy from malicious new entrants. In this Spectrum Access System (SAS) advancement, Primary Users (PUs) are obfuscated with the efforts of the SAS and the cooperation of obedient new entrants. Further, the necessary changes to the SAS to support this privacy scheme are exposed to suggest improvements in PU privacy, Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD)-SAS relations, and punishment for unauthorized transmission. Results show the feasibility for PU obfuscation with respect to malicious spectrum sensing users. Simulation results indicate that the obfuscation scheme can deliver location and frequency occupation privacy with 75% and 66% effectiveness respectively in a 100% efficient spectrum utilization oriented obfuscation scheme. A scheme without spectrum utilization constraint shows up to 91% location privacy effectiveness. Experiment trials indicate that the privacy tactic can be implemented on an open-source SAS, however environmental factors may degrade the tactic's performance. / Master of Science / With a growing demand for spectrum availability, wireless spectrum sharing has become a high-profile solution to spectrum overcrowding. In order to enable spectrum sharing between incumbent/primary (e.g.,federal communications, naval radar, users already grandfathered into the band) and secondary users (e.g., commercial communications companies), incumbents must have spectrum protection and privacy from malicious new entrants. In this Spectrum Access System (SAS) advancement, Primary Users (PUs) are obfuscated with the efforts of the incumbent informed SAS and the cooperation of obedient new entrants. Further, the necessary changes to the SAS to support this privacy scheme are exposed to suggest improvements in PU privacy, Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD)-SAS relations, and punishment for unauthorized transmission. Results show the feasibility of PU obfuscation with respect to malicious spectrum sensing users. Simulation results indicate that the obfuscation tactic can deliver location and frequency occupation privacy with 75% and 66% effectiveness respectively in a 100% efficient spectrum utilization oriented obfuscation scheme. A scheme without spectrum utilization constraint shows up to 91% location privacy effectiveness. Experiment trials indicate that the privacy tactic can be implemented on an open-source SAS, however environmental factors may degrade the tactic's performance.

This thesis is an exploration of privacy as it relates to the Internet in general, and e-mail communication in particular. It looks at the philosophy of privacy and tracks the privacy debate in both an academic and legal framework. It examines the Australian Privacy Act of 1988 and similar legislation overseas. Current government approaches to privacy and privacy regulation are also examined providing a legislative/political context for the research. The fieldwork component of the thesis attempts to unravel individual perceptions of privacy. It overlays those perceptions of privacy with an examination of the effects of Internet technology on a conceptual understanding of privacy. There is no doubt that the discussion of privacy and the electronic age is extensive but discussion with individuals about their place in the debate and, indeed, the legislation is yet to be tackled in an extensive manner. Until we mesh the views of individuals in the community about their place in the new communications technology and privacy debate, we will not reap the full benefits of advances in communications technology. Consumers will remain reluctant about and suspicious of breaches of their privacy via the Internet.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-174).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-153)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Users share a large amount of information with modern platforms such as web platforms and social platforms for various services. However, they face the risk of information leakage because modern platforms still lack proper security policies. Existing security policies, such as permission systems and isolation, can help regulate information sharing. However, these policies have problems, such as coarse granularity, bad usability, and incompleteness, especially when new features are introduced. I investigate the security impacts of new features in web and mobile platforms and find design problems that lead to user information leakage. Based on these analyses, I propose design principles for permission systems that mediate how information should be shared in modern and emerging platforms, such as web and social platforms, to provide functionality with privacy preserved. I aim to design permission systems that only allow least-privilege information access. Specifically, I utilize program analysis and natural language processing to understand how applications use sensitive data and correlate these data with their functionality. With this understanding, I design schemes that ask for user consent about unexpected information access and automatically reduce overprivileged access. I provide guidelines for platform designers to build their permission systems according to respective adversary models and resources. In particular, I implement the new permission system for social platforms and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms that enable least-privilege information sharing. For the social platforms, I incorporate the primitives of Opaque handle, Opaque display, and User-driven access control (OOU) to design a least-privilege, user-friendly, developer-friendly, and feature-rich permission system. According to my study on Facebook, OOU can be applied to remove or replace 81.2% of sensitive permission instances without affecting functionality. For IoT platforms, I present a new authorization framework, SmartAuth, that supports user-centric, semantic-based authorization. SmartAuth automatically collects security-relevant information from an IoT application’s description, code, and annotations, and generates an authorization user interface to bridge the gap between the functionalities explained to the user and the operations the application actually performs.

Search engines have become integral to the way in which we use the Web of today. Not only are they an important real time source of links to relevant information, but they also serve as a starting point to the Web. A veritable treasure trove of the latest news, satellite images, directions from anywhere to anywhere, local traffic updates and global trends ranging from the spread of influenza to which celebrity happens to be the most popular at a particular time. The more popular search engines are collecting incredible amounts of information. In addition to indexing significant portions of the Web they record what hundreds of millions of users around the world are searching for. As more people use a particular search engine, it has the potential to record more information on what is deemed relevant (and in doing so provide better relevance in the future, thereby attracting more users). Unfortunately, the relevance derived from this cycle between the search user and the search engine comes at a cost: privacy. In this work, we take an in depth look at what privacy means within the context of search. We discuss why it is that the search engine must be considered a threat to search privacy. We then investigate potential solutions and eventually propose our own in a bid to enhance search privacy. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Computer Science / unrestricted

No description available.

<p>  </p> <p>The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies into the substantial commercial market that it is today comes with several challenges. Not only do these systems face the traditional challenges of security and reliability faced by traditional information technology (IT) products, but they also face the challenge of loss of privacy. The concern of user data privacy is most prevalent when these technologies come into the home environment. In this dissertation quasi-experimental research is conducted on the ability of users to protect private data in a heterogeneous smart home network. For this work the experiments are conducted and verified on eight different smart home devices using network traffic analysis and discourse analysis to identify privacy concerns. The results of the research show that data privacy within the confines of the user’s home often cannot be ensured while maintaining smart home device functionality. This dissertation discusses how those results can inform users and manufacturers alike in the use and development of future smart home technologies to better protect privacy concerns.</p>