A multiagent architecture for privacy-preserving ID-based service in ubiquitous computing environment

Privacy preservation is crucial in the ubiquitous computing because a lot of privacy-sensitive information can be collected and distributed in the ubiquitous computing environment. The anonymity-based approach is one of well-known ones for privacy preservation in ubiquitous computing. It allows users to use pseudonyms when they join in a service area of the ubiquitous computing environment. This approach can protect users' privacy by hiding the user's real IDs, but it makes it difficult to provide ID-based services like buddy service, safety alert service, and so on. This paper proposes a multiagent architecture to make it possible to provide ID-based services in the anonymity-based privacy awareness systems. The proposed architecture employs so-called the white page agent which maintains the current pseudonyms of users and allows users to get the pseudonyms of other users from the agent. Even though the white page agent contains the pseudonyms of users, it is enforced not to disclose the association of real user IDs with pseudonyms by adopting encryption techniques. This paper presents in detail the proposed architecture, its constituent components and their roles and how they provide ID-based services in the anonymity-based system. As an example, it also presents how buddy service can take place in the proposed architecture.