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Using Search Results to Microaggregate Query Logs Semantically

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Data Privacy Management and Autonomous Spontaneous Security (DPM 2013, SETOP 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 8247))

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Abstract

Query log anonymization has become an important challenge nowadays. A query log contains the search history of the users, as well as the selected results and their position in the ranking. These data are used to provide a personalized re-ranking of results and trend studies. However, query logs can disclose sensitive information of the users. Hence, query logs must be submitted to an anonymization process to guarantee that: (a) no sensitive information can be linked to an identity; (b) the analysis of the anonymized data produces similar results than the original data, i.e. minimize data distortion. Latest anonymization approaches utilize microaggregation, a statistical disclosure control technique that provides a privacy comparable with \(k\)-anonymity, attempting to minimize the data distortion. We propose a new method that uses search results to optimize microaggregation, providing more data reliability than the existing methods.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that a user can consider some information private or not according to her beliefs, i.e. whereas a user can consider her religion a public issue, another user can consider this information private. Determining what information is private or not is out of the scope of this paper. For this reason, we consider that all the information has the same importance and is private, as is made in [3].

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the European Commission under FP7 project Inter-Trust, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (through projects eAEGIS TSI2007-65406-C03-01, CO-PRIVACY TIN2011-27076-C03-01, ARES-CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 CSD2007-00004, Audit Transparency Voting Process IPT-430000-2010-31 and BallotNext IPT-2012-0603-430000) and by the Government of Catalonia (under grant 2009 SGR 1135).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament d’Enginyeria Informàtica i Matemàtiques, UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Av. Països Catalans 26, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Arnau Erola & Jordi Castellà-Roca

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  1. Arnau Erola
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  2. Jordi Castellà-Roca
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Correspondence to Arnau Erola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TELECOM SudParis, Evry, France

    Joaquin Garcia-Alfaro

  2. National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Georgios Lioudakis

  3. TELECOM Bretagne, Cesson Sévigné, France

    Nora Cuppens-Boulahia

  4. University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Simon Foley

  5. IDA Ovens, EMC Information Systems International, Cork, Ireland

    William M. Fitzgerald

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Erola, A., Castellà-Roca, J. (2014). Using Search Results to Microaggregate Query Logs Semantically. In: Garcia-Alfaro, J., Lioudakis, G., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., Foley, S., Fitzgerald, W. (eds) Data Privacy Management and Autonomous Spontaneous Security. DPM SETOP 2013 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8247. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54568-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54568-9_10

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-54568-9

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