A Framework based on Edge Computing and Identity Replacement for the Protection of User Information Service Privacy

Abstract Along with the rapid development of new network technologies such as cloud computing, the server sides were becoming more and more untrustworthy, and the problem of user privacy has become one of the main obstacles to the further development of modern information services. In this paper, under an architecture of edge computing, we propose to replace the identity associated with each user information service request with an identity from other users on an edge-side, to break the association between users and their requests, and thus protect user information service privacy. First, we present a basic framework under edge computing and identity replacement for the protection of user information service privacy. It requires no changes to the accuracy, efficiency and generality of information services, and no changes to the information service algorithm and user usage habits, so it has good practicability. Second, we define an identity replacement-based model for the protection of user information service privacy, which formulates the privacy constraints and cost constraints that should be satisfied in the process of user identity replacement on an edge-side. Third, according to four matching strategies proposed based on the privacy model, we present an implementation algorithm for the privacy model. Finally, both theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, i.e., compared with existing technical methods, it has better overall performance in terms of accuracy, efficiency, generality and practicability, which can improve the security of user information service privacy on the untrusted cloud-side, without compromising the usability of information services.