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Modelling Unlinkability

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Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2760))

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Abstract

While there have been made several proposals to define and measure anonymity (e.g., with information theory, formal languages and logics) unlinkability has not been modelled generally and formally. In contrast to anonymity unlinkability is not restricted to persons. In fact the unlinkability of arbitrary items can be measured. In this paper we try to formalise the notion of unlinkability, give a refinement of anonymity definitions based on this formalisation and show the impact of unlinkability on anonymity. We choose information theory as a method to describe unlinkability because it allows an easy probabilistic description. As an illustration for our formalisation we describe its meaning for communication systems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustr. 9, D-14195, Berlin, Germany

    Sandra Steinbrecher

  2. Fakultät Informatik, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062, Dresden, Germany

    Stefan Köpsell

Authors
  1. Sandra Steinbrecher
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  2. Stefan Köpsell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Free Haven Project,  

    Roger Dingledine

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Steinbrecher, S., Köpsell, S. (2003). Modelling Unlinkability. In: Dingledine, R. (eds) Privacy Enhancing Technologies. PET 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2760. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-40956-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-40956-4_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20610-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-40956-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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