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Online Social Networks: Privacy Threats and Defenses

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Security and Privacy Preserving in Social Networks

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Social Networks ((LNSN))

Abstract

With over 1 billion users connected through online social networks, user privacy is becoming ever more important and is widely discussed in the media and researched in academia. In this chapter we provide a brief overview of some threats to users’ privacy. We classify these threats as: users’ limitations, design flaws and limitations, implicit flows of information, and clash of incentives. We also discuss two defense mechanisms which deploy usable privacy through a visual and interactive flow of information and a rational privacy vulnerability scanner.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Social bots are bot nets on social networks.

  2. 2.

    http://www.facebook.com/claude.shannon—Checked on September 12, 2012, Shannon’s profile may have been made by a fan to pay tribute but similar approaches can be used by attackers.

  3. 3.

    The profile of a cat at the first author’s previous residential hall has 170 friends. This could again be used to spy on users—http://www.facebook.com/CelebratingStarlight.

  4. 4.

    A friend attacker is an attacker who is a friend on Facebook.

  5. 5.

    Based on our paper [30].

  6. 6.

    Based on our paper [26].

  7. 7.

    Photo modified for didactic purposes.

  8. 8.

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anders-B-Breivik/265349460157301 Accessed: July 13, 2012.

  9. 9.

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anwar-al-Awlaki/102248169830078?rf=134722733227304 Accessed: July 13, 2012.

  10. 10.

    This section is based on our paper [29].

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Yvo Desmedt with whom he co-authored some of the work cited in this chapter. The author would also like to thank University College London for providing him financial support through the University College London PhD Studentship Program. This chapter is based on our work in [24–30].

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  1. Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK

    Shah Mahmood

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  1. Shah Mahmood
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Correspondence to Shah Mahmood .

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  1. LIUPPA Laboratory, University of Pau and Adour Countries, Anglet, France

    Richard Chbeir

  2. Ticket Laboratory, Antonine University, Baabda, Lebanon

    Bechara Al Bouna

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Mahmood, S. (2013). Online Social Networks: Privacy Threats and Defenses. In: Chbeir, R., Al Bouna, B. (eds) Security and Privacy Preserving in Social Networks. Lecture Notes in Social Networks. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0894-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0894-9_2

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