Contributions to privacy in web search engines

Web Search Engines collects and stores information about their users in order to tailor their services better to their users' needs. Nevertheless, while receiving a personalized attention, the users lose the control over their own data. Search logs can disclose sensitive information and the ide...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Erola Cañellas, Arnau
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Universitat Rovira i virgili (URV)
Repositorio:Repositori Institucional de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili
OAI Identifier:oai:urv.cat:TDX:1333
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX1333
http://hdl.handle.net/10803/130934
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:311 - Estadística
004 - Informàtica
Descripción
Sumario:Web Search Engines collects and stores information about their users in order to tailor their services better to their users' needs. Nevertheless, while receiving a personalized attention, the users lose the control over their own data. Search logs can disclose sensitive information and the identities of the users, creating risks of privacy breaches. In this thesis we discuss the problem of limiting the disclosure risks while minimizing the information loss. The first part of this thesis focuses on the methods to prevent the gathering of information by WSEs. Since search logs are needed in order to receive an accurate service, the aim is to provide logs that are still suitable to provide personalization. We propose a protocol which uses a social network to obfuscate users' profiles. The second part deals with the dissemination of search logs. We propose microaggregation techniques which allow the publication of search logs, providing $k$-anonymity while minimizing the information loss.