Preventing intersection attacks

1. A computer-implemented method for protecting sensitive data against intersection attacks, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, information to be transmitted in a serial-time transmission;

converting, by the computer, the information into a strictly hierarchical data format;

calculating a precision for releasing the strictly hierarchical data, based on privacy protection levels and a reward for different precision levels; and

sequentially releasing the strictly hierarchical data at the calculated precision in a time series transmission,

wherein the calculating of precision uses a Markov Decision Processing (MDP) process implementing a discounted reward model that incorporates the privacy protection levels and which applies a privacy protection level appropriate for a purpose of the serial-time transmissions while maximizing a utility function for the reward based on a granularity of precision in a release, in view of the appropriate privacy protection level, a current number of users, and a probability of changes in the current number of users.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said strictly hierarchical data format disallows partial overlaps between two data signatures, meaning that, given any two data signatures A,B, the intersection of (A, B) is either A or B or null (A∩B=Ø or A∩B=A or B).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the strictly hierarchical data format is defined as meaning, given any two data signatures A and B, then exactly one of the following holds:

A is equal to B;

A is strictly contained inside B;

B is strictly contained inside A; and

A and B are completely disjoint.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises location data.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said converting comprises converting the location data using a geohashing technique.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information originates from a mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information originates from a stationary data source.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said receiving information comprises receiving information from multiple entities, the method further comprising:

receiving values from one or more privacy modules as reflecting inputs from the multiple entities; and

adapting one or more parameters associated with said calculating of precision,

wherein said calculating of precision is thereby performed for the multiple entities without having to calculate a precision for each entity or for each data release.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

detecting a number n of entities in an area reporting said information as time-series information to receive protection by said privacy modules as a group of entities reporting said information; and

updating said one or more parameters associated with said calculating of precision, in response to changes detected to said number n of entities.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a capability for at least a temporary override for the calculated precision for at least one of a specific application and a specific individual.

11. A system, comprising:

a computer having at least one processor; and

at least one memory device accessible by said at least one processor,

wherein said memory device stores a set of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes:

receiving, by the computer, information as a time series;

converting, by the computer, the information into a strictly hierarchical data format;

calculating a precision for a release of the strictly hierarchical data, based on privacy protection levels and a reward for different precision levels; and

sequentially releasing the strictly hierarchical data at the calculated precision in a time-series transmission,

wherein the calculating of precision uses a Markov Decision Processing (MDP) process implementing a discounted reward model that incorporates the privacy protection levels and which maximizes a utility function for the reward based on a granularity of precision in a release, in view of the privacy protection levels, a current number of users, and a probability of changes in the current number of users.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the information comprises location data.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein said converting comprises converting the location data using a geohashing technique.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein said receiving information comprises receiving information from multiple entities, and the set of computer-readable instructions further causing:

receiving values from one or more privacy modules as reflecting inputs from the multiple entities; and

adapting one or more parameters associated with said calculating of precision,

wherein said calculating of precision is thereby performed for the multiple entities without having to determine a precision for each entity or for each data release.

15. The system of claim 14 , the set of computer-readable instructions further causing:

detecting a number n of entities in an area reporting said information as time series to receive protection by said privacy modules as a group of entities reporting said information; and

updating said one or more parameters associated with said calculating of precision, in response to changes detected to said number n of entities.

16. The system of claim 15 , the set of computer-readable instructions further providing a capability for at least a temporary override for the calculated precision for at least one of a specific application and a specific individual.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein software is provided as a service in a cloud environment.

18. A computer program product for protecting private information against attack, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to implement the method of claim 1 .

19. A computer-implemented method for protecting sensitive data against intersection attacks, the method comprising:

receiving input data from n users as sensitive data to be transmitted in serial time transmissions;

converting, by a processor on a computer, the information into a strictly hierarchical data format;

setting parameters of a Markov Decision Processing (MDP) process based on a current number of users providing data to be transmitted, the MDP process implementing a discounted reward model that incorporates the privacy protection levels and which maximizes a utility function for the reward based on a granularity of precision in a release, in view of the privacy protection levels, a current number of users, and a probability of changes in the current number of users,

exercising the MDP process to calculate a precision for a release of sensitive data; and

providing the sensitive data at the calculated precision to a location based service for transmission of the sensitive data in serial time transmissions in a privacy protection format used by the location based service.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19 , wherein the location based service uses a privacy protection format from a plurality of privacy protection formats comprising at least: k-anonymity, l-diversity, t-closeness, randomized IDs, and differential privacy.