Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme

People use web search engines to retrieve information from the world wide web. Search engines maintain query logs to refine retrieved information for personalized web search. The query log includes information of users, both sensitive and non-sensitive. If utilized against an individual, the query l...

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Main Authors: Shariq Bashir, Akmal Saeed Khattak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10011421/
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author Shariq Bashir
Akmal Saeed Khattak
author_facet Shariq Bashir
Akmal Saeed Khattak
author_sort Shariq Bashir
collection DOAJ
description People use web search engines to retrieve information from the world wide web. Search engines maintain query logs to refine retrieved information for personalized web search. The query log includes information of users, both sensitive and non-sensitive. If utilized against an individual, the query log may pose privacy concerns and reveal a lot of information about them. In recent years many private web search (PWS) schemes have been proposed to realize privacy-preserving web search. Although each PWS scheme claims to have unique features for attaining web search privacy (WSP), no study explains which private web search characteristics should be considered when building and utilizing a PWS scheme. There are two objectives of this article. In the first part of the article, we present a novel PWS scheme that uses a proxy-query-based query obfuscation approach. Proxy-query-based query obfuscation is a new study topic in PWS research. It provides an IR facility for retrieving information from web search engines via proxy queries. One clear advantage of the proposed scheme is that users do not issue true queries to search engines for retrieving information. The article’s second objective is to define the characteristics of PWS and analyze modern PWS schemes on these characteristics. We analyzed proposed and modern PWS schemes on the PWS characteristics. The analysis demonstrated only the proposed PWS scheme achieves all characteristics. Existing PWS systems have been discovered vulnerable to WSP attacks since they do not meet all PWS characteristics.
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spelling doaj.art-1c426c04fda6476db4d1e8b86ee8963e2023-02-21T00:03:26ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-01113607362510.1109/ACCESS.2023.323500010011421Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation SchemeShariq Bashir0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0789-4962Akmal Saeed Khattak1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2372-0137Institute of Applied Data Analytics (IADA), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), Gadong, BruneiDepartment of Computer Science, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, PakistanPeople use web search engines to retrieve information from the world wide web. Search engines maintain query logs to refine retrieved information for personalized web search. The query log includes information of users, both sensitive and non-sensitive. If utilized against an individual, the query log may pose privacy concerns and reveal a lot of information about them. In recent years many private web search (PWS) schemes have been proposed to realize privacy-preserving web search. Although each PWS scheme claims to have unique features for attaining web search privacy (WSP), no study explains which private web search characteristics should be considered when building and utilizing a PWS scheme. There are two objectives of this article. In the first part of the article, we present a novel PWS scheme that uses a proxy-query-based query obfuscation approach. Proxy-query-based query obfuscation is a new study topic in PWS research. It provides an IR facility for retrieving information from web search engines via proxy queries. One clear advantage of the proposed scheme is that users do not issue true queries to search engines for retrieving information. The article’s second objective is to define the characteristics of PWS and analyze modern PWS schemes on these characteristics. We analyzed proposed and modern PWS schemes on the PWS characteristics. The analysis demonstrated only the proposed PWS scheme achieves all characteristics. Existing PWS systems have been discovered vulnerable to WSP attacks since they do not meet all PWS characteristics.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10011421/Private web searchweb search privacyquery obfuscationproxy-queries based web searchinformation retrieval
spellingShingle Shariq Bashir
Akmal Saeed Khattak
Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
IEEE Access
Private web search
web search privacy
query obfuscation
proxy-queries based web search
information retrieval
title Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
title_full Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
title_fullStr Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
title_full_unstemmed Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
title_short Private Web Search Using Proxy-Query Based Query Obfuscation Scheme
title_sort private web search using proxy query based query obfuscation scheme
topic Private web search
web search privacy
query obfuscation
proxy-queries based web search
information retrieval
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10011421/
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