UK researcher developing anti-tracking and robocall-free architecture
Summary
LEXINGTON, Ky. A University of Kentucky researcher and his team are tackling a long-standing privacy challenge faced by many people who use cell phones mobile tracking and automatic voice calls, commonly known as robocalls.The project, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is led by Yang Xiao, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. Not only had we seen news of mobile users data being breached and scam calls causing huge economic loss to our society, but we also found that there were foundational causes to these problems in incumbent mobile network architectures that needed to be addressed through new technical approaches.One such approach is to allow mobile users to access mobile networks with an anonymous verifiable credential (VC) without revealing their real identity, preventing possible mobile tracking by curious mobile network operators. To fight robocalls and scam calls, the architecture will also feature a mechanism that allows users to enable only their trusted callers to call them, a caller credential like the accept a friend request used in social media apps.The biggest challenge is ensuring mobile users will still have the same usage experience when the mobile network operators do not know the real user identity while still having to support voice calls and usage billing functions on par with existing 5G services. Xiao says his team is progressing positively and believes the final solution can achieve an optimal balance between security and usability.Xiao works closely with two UK Ph.D. students, Ifteher Alom and Yue Li, undergraduate researcher Athan Johnson, and research collaborators at Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech.I always received feedback on the strong need for such privacy-preserving technologies, and some were motivated by personal experiences that they or their loved ones had fallen prey to mobile privacy leakages and scam calls. This gave me great fulfillment about our solutions and the project, said Xiao.
Funding
Review available funding amount, funding date, investors, and linked company information related to UK researcher developing anti-tracking and robocall-free architecture in the interactive ISVWorld profile.