Privacy Techniques for Edge Computing Systems

In an edge-enabled data management and computing environment, it is critical to ensure the privacy of the information acquired, processed, and exchanged among the different parties. The problem is complex because of the large scale, mobility, device, and protocol heterogeneity. Also, unlike in conventional environments, communication may be fragmented and portions of the environment can be physically unprotected. To date, there are several privacy-enhancing techniques, such as secure multiparty computation techniques, private information retrieval (PIR), and data sanitization techniques. However, there is not a single technique that works for all possible uses of the data in edge systems. In addition, these techniques are computationally expensive and thus may not be suitable for edge devices. In this paper, we first cover basic privacy building blocks, including differential privacy and homomorphic encryption. We then discuss privacy solutions specific to three different types of data use that are relevant for edge-based applications: data aggregation techniques, point-of-interest (POI) services and traffic information services, and crowdsourcing. These applications have been selected as they provide a broad spectrum of edge computing applications. Throughout this paper, we outline open research directions.