Idealized security requirements: impersonation, collusion, and privacy breaching

The conventional model of social networks, users select their contacts from a set of off-line acquaintances. Despite their utility, these conventional networks support only a subset of social networking: two users will only be able to establish a relationship in the social network if they , or are introduced to each other. One more Encounter based social network, the only requirement for establishing a connection is to be in the same place at the same time similar to striking up a conversation at a public place. Encounter-based social networks would provide a computing infrastructure to allow for creation of varied services such as a “missed connections” virtual bulletin board, on-the-fly introductions (business card exchange), or real-time in-person key distribution to bootstrap secure communication in other systems. People do not automatically place their trust in others simply based on presence in the same location, it is also desirable to reveal the minimum amount of information required for future secure communication. Sharing detailed personal information is not the primary goal of encounter-based networks, Sharing detailed personal information is not the primary goal of encounter-based networks, but can of course be easily implemented if both users agree upon the successful verified encounter. It is worth noting that we assume that other users at the encounter time and location are potentially malicious, and may collect information, collude with other parties, and otherwise make it difficult for two people to establish a secure private connection. They developed a prototype of our design, called MeetUp1, that uses visual authentication for encounter information exchange and verification. Encounter-based networks with visual authentication would play to people’s strengths, allowing anyone who remembers a face to later connect with the “owner” of that face, without the need to remember additional information. MeetUp uses Tor hidden services to provide an anonymous communication channel for the second phase of our protocol.