I-Corps: An Outsourced and Completely Private Social Network: You&Me

Missouri University Of Science And Technology, Rolla MO

Investigators

Abstract

Currently, any data posted or stored on the existing social networks are visible to the social network providers. Once a user posts a message or stores personal information on a social network, it is no longer in the control of the user how the data will be used by the social network service providers. In the past few years, many media organizations have been arguing that certain providers are probably selling user profile data to third-party advertisers to make profits. In the wake of such criticisms, users become more concerned about their privacy leaving them with a serious question as to whether or not any social network provider can be seriously trusted. Since the user profile data reside on the servers of a social network provider, there is no way for a user to verify whether the provider is strictly enforcing the user's privacy policies. The I-Corps team is currently working on a prototype system of You&Me. It combines the secure techniques generated from the principal investigator's previous research project, the existing open source database management systems, and open source user interface development packages to implement You&Me. So far, the team has finalized the basic software architecture and components and started implementing the fundamental features. At the end of this project, the team expects to have the basic version of the prototype system as a demo. The prototype system will show potential investors how You&Me can fully protect user privacy, and at the same time, the users can still enjoy the same or very similar functionalities as the existing social networks.