Faceless: decentralized anonymous group messaging for online social networks

  • Authors:
  • Xiaoxiao Song;David Isaac Wolinsky;Bryan Ford

  • Affiliations:
  • Yale University;Yale University;Yale University

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Social Network Systems
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Social networks (SNs) enable physically distributed groups to communicate seamlessly. Unfortunately such communication can be easily mined by adversaries in attempts to breach users' privacy or suppress open discussion on sensitive topics. While anonymous posting can help protect users by hiding the link between individuals and the messages they post, existing anonymization schemes are centralized or vulnerable to well-known attacks. To offer stronger protection for free speech online, we propose a method for anonymous group communication using SNs called Faceless. Faceless leverages existing Internet-based SNs for convenience in managing groups and users' public identities, but augments these centralized services with a decentralized anonymous posting overlay offering provable anonymity guarantees, resisting even group infiltration and traffic analysis attacks.