DIMACS TR: 97-15
Crowds: Anonymity for Web Transactions
Authors: Michael K. Reiter and Aviel D. Rubin
ABSTRACT
In this announcement we introduce a system called Crowds for
protecting users' anonymity on the world-wide-web. Crowds, named for
the notion of ``blending into a crowd'', operates by grouping users
into a large and geographically diverse group (crowd) that
collectively issues requests on behalf of its members. Web servers
are unable to learn the true source of a request because it is equally
likely to have originated from any member of the crowd, and indeed
collaborating crowd members cannot distinguish the originator of a
request from a member who is merely forwarding the request on behalf
of another. Our security analysis introduces {\em degrees of
anonymity} as an important tool for describing and proving anonymity
properties.
Paper Available at:
ftp://dimacs.rutgers.edu/pub/dimacs/TechnicalReports/TechReports/1997/97-15new.ps.gz
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