Journal of Cryptology

, Volume 23, Issue 2, pp 344–371 | Cite as

How Should We Solve Search Problems Privately?

  • Amos Beimel
  • Tal Malkin
  • Kobbi Nissim
  • Enav Weinreb
Article
  • 174 Downloads

Abstract

Secure multiparty computation allows a group of distrusting parties to jointly compute a (possibly randomized) function of their inputs. However, it is often the case that the parties executing a computation try to solve a search problem, where one input may have a multitude of correct answers—such as when the parties compute a shortest path in a graph or find a solution of a set of linear equations.

The algorithm for arbitrarily picking one output from the solution set has significant implications on the privacy of the computation. A minimal privacy requirement was put forward by Beimel et al. [STOC 2006] with focus on proving impossibility results. Their definition, however, guarantees a very weak notion of privacy, which is probably insufficient for most applications.

In this work we aim for stronger definitions of privacy for search problems that provide reasonable privacy. We give two alternative definitions and discuss their privacy guarantees. We also supply algorithmic machinery for designing such protocols for a broad selection of search problems.

Keywords

Secure computation Search problems Privacy Resemblance 

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Copyright information

© International Association for Cryptologic Research 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Amos Beimel
    • 1
  • Tal Malkin
    • 2
  • Kobbi Nissim
    • 3
  • Enav Weinreb
    • 4
  1. 1.Dept. of Computer ScienceBen-Gurion UniversityBe’er ShevaIsrael
  2. 2.Dept. of Computer ScienceColumbia UniversityNew YorkUSA
  3. 3.Dept. of Computer ScienceBen-Gurion UniversityBe’er ShevaIsrael
  4. 4.CWIAmsterdamThe Netherlands

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