Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina
Other Authors: David D. Clark.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72901
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author Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina
author2 David D. Clark.
author_facet David D. Clark.
Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina
author_sort Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012.
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spelling mit-1721.1/729012022-01-31T21:43:32Z Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer Unraveling accountability at the application layer Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina David D. Clark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Technology and Policy Program. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division Technology and Policy Program Engineering Systems Division. Technology and Policy Program. Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2012. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-157). Both anonymity and accountability play crucial roles in sustaining the Internet's functionality, however there is a common misconception that increasing the anonymity of Internet identities necessitates diminishing their accountability, and vice-versa. This thesis argues that by implementing accountability mechanisms and anonymity protections at the application layer of the Internet, rather than the network layer, it is possible to develop a variety of different types of accountable-anonymous virtual identities tailored to meet the needs of the great diversity of online applications. Examples are drawn from case studies of several identity mechanisms used by existing applications, including e-mail, the virtual community Second Life, the Facebook social network, and the review site Yelp. These case studies focus on potential "points of control" for each application, as well as the ways different proposed identity schemes can leverage these control points to help mitigate the problems observed in existing identity frameworks, especially the issue of "discardable identities," or online identities that can be easily and cheaply disposed of and replaced. General design patterns for implementing accountability are discussed, with particular emphasis on the design of application-specific identity investment-privilege trade-offs, conditional anonymity schemes, and aggregated, identity management systems, as well as the role of scoped identities and linked identities in promoting online accountability. by Josephine Charlotte Paulina Wolff. S.M.in Technology and Policy 2012-09-13T19:00:43Z 2012-09-13T19:00:43Z 2012 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72901 808490524 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 157 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Engineering Systems Division.
Technology and Policy Program.
Wolff, Josephine Charlotte Paulina
Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title_full Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title_fullStr Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title_full_unstemmed Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title_short Unraveling Internet identities : accountability & anonymity at the application layer
title_sort unraveling internet identities accountability anonymity at the application layer
topic Engineering Systems Division.
Technology and Policy Program.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72901
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