Hash-Based Matching for Privacy-Preserving Network Data Identification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network systems face challenges in efficiently identifying matching information items while maintaining privacy and security, as they often require transmitting large amounts of data and risk revealing sensitive information.
Innovation Solution
A method using a hashing scheme to generate and compare hash values, where the hashing scheme is designed to produce a sufficient number of collisions that prevent a unique hash value from identifying a specific information item, allowing for the identification of matching information items without disclosing the original data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If contact details, interest identifiers, or file identifiers are transmitted over the network to find matching items, then the ability to identify matching information items is improved, but network resources are consumed and privacy/security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a copy of the information items in the form of hash values, which are much smaller than the original data. Instead of transmitting the actual contact lists, interest identifiers, or file identifiers, only their hash representations are exchanged. This copying approach maintains the ability to compare and identify matches while dramatically reducing the quantity of data transmitted over the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential identifying feature of each information item - its hash value - and transmits only this extracted feature rather than the complete information. By taking out only the necessary comparison data and leaving the bulk of the original information local to each node, the system achieves efficient matching without excessive data transmission.
2Measurement precision
If contact lists or interest identifiers are transmitted to another node, then matching can be performed, but privacy and security are compromised as sensitive information is revealed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses hash values as copies of the original information that preserve the ability to identify matches while rendering the original content inaccessible. Since hash functions are designed to be one-way transformations, the receiving node can compare hash values to identify matches but cannot determine what the original contact names, interest identifiers, or file names were, thus maintaining privacy and security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces hash values as an intermediary representation between the nodes. Instead of nodes directly exchanging and processing sensitive information, they exchange only the hash intermediaries. This intermediary layer allows matching operations to occur without the original sensitive data ever being transmitted or exposed to other nodes in the network.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of identifying the presence of matching information items in a network, the network comprising a first node and a second node, the method comprising: using a hashing scheme to generate a set of first hash values from a respective set of first information items stored at the first node; transmitting the set of first hash values over the network to the second node; comparing the set of first hash values at the second node with a set of second hash values generated, using the hashing scheme, from a respective set of second information items stored in the network, to thereby determine at least one matching hash value between the set of first hash values and the set of second hash values; using the determined at least one matching hash value to identify the presence of at least one matching information item between the set of first information items and the set of second information items, wherein the hashing scheme is chosen so that a unique hash value in the hashing scheme indicates a sufficient number of information items to prevent the unique hash value being used as an identifier of a unique information item, such that the transmission of the set of first hash values to the second node does not disclose the set of first information items to the second node.