Resource-efficient privacy-preserving transactions
A computer with data (the “source”) establishes communication channels to other computers with available computing resources (the “workers”). The computers exchange information to negotiate alternative sets of encryption techniques and security settings. The source calculates a response by negotiating a data reduction scheme that is applied to form heterogeneous data payloads. Some of the data are encrypted using a fully homomorphic encryption algorithm to form a multi-segment response, whereas other data are encrypted using an encryption algorithm other than fully homomorphic encryption. Security-relevant parameters of the invoked encryption schemes are varied to achieve a negotiated optimal data reduction scheme. Candidate reduction schemes to apply to the user data are negotiated based on then-current communication bandwidth availability and/or computer processing resources at the source and/or at the workers. When an agreement is reached, the source transmits protected data to the workers in accordance with the negotiated data reduction scheme.
1 . A method for performing resource-efficient privacy-preserving transactions over one or more kinds of data, the method comprising:
establishing an Internet communication channel between a user device and a correspondent device;
receiving a data inquiry from the correspondent device;
preparing a response to the data inquiry by:
in response to the data inquiry, negotiating a data reduction scheme that causes preprocessing to modify the one or more kinds of data to form one or more reduced-size instances of the one or more kinds of data;
encrypting at least a portion of the reduced-size instances of the one or more kinds of data to form a first segment of the response; and
transmitting, over the Internet communication channel, at least a portion of the first segment of the response to the correspondent device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preprocessing comprises at least one of, determination of a kind value corresponding to the at least a portion of the one or more kinds of data, determination of a sensitivity value corresponding to the at least a portion of the one or more kinds of data, determination of a reduction scheme corresponding to the at least a portion of the one or more kinds of data, or determination of a homomorphic encryption algorithm.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the preprocessing comprises use of at least one of, a kind classifier, or a sensitivity classifier.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the preprocessing comprises at least one of, an operation to isolate a portion of an image, or an operation to perform edge detection on the image, or an operation to downsample the image.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the preprocessing comprises determining bandwidth availability of one or more end-to-end Internet communication channels before determining feasibility of a data reduction operation.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to the data inquiry, initiating a protocol with another party and carrying out the protocol to negotiate set of optimization parameters.
7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising: determining a particular feasible data reduction scheme.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a first party corresponding to the user device enforces a greater privacy index than does a second party corresponding to the correspondent device.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
consulting a data reduction transform dictionary.
10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising, negotiating a particular instance of the data reduction transform dictionary.
11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein at least some entries of the data reduction transform dictionary comprise at least one of, an indication of an extent to which a particular operation reduces a particular type of input data, an indication of whether a particular data reduction operation corresponds to a more secure encryption scheme, or an indication of whether a particular chain corresponds to a more secure encryption scheme.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a second party corresponding to the correspondent device enforces a greater privacy index than does a first party corresponding to the user device.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data reduction scheme is negotiated based at least in part on an optimization priority.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the negotiating comprises offering at least one candidate for an increased cryptographic hardness.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one correspondent in the negotiating evaluates an optimization function that determines whether to counter an offer or to accept the offer.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the data reduction scheme is negotiated based at least in part on then-current conditions of the Internet channels and/or based at least in part on then-current availability of computing resources.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the data reduction scheme comprises a sequence of at least one reduction technique.
18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the negotiating comprises offering at least one candidate for a decreased size of payload.
19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the negotiating comprises offering at least one candidate for a decreased computer resource demand.
20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the negotiating comprises offering at least one candidate for an increased cryptographic hardness.