05-Oct-2021 | Market Research Store
The new “Pretty Good Phone Privacy” (PGPP) architecture is advanced enough to decouple smartphone connectivity from billing and authentication by preventing mobile network towers to track the users. The software-based alternative, which the researchers referred to as an "architecture shift," does not require any kind of alterationsin cellular network hardware.
Wheneverdata is transmitted through a phone, radio signals are emitted from the phone to the cellular tower and subsequently into the network. It indicates that even if apps are not permitted to track the location, the phone keeps onexchanging signals with the tower. It seems like a fundamental issue, which has not been resolved yet.
This new technique devised by the researchers at Princeton University and USC Viterbi School of Engineering works by disabling the direct connection between the user's phone and the cellular tower. An anonymous "token" is transmitted from the phone to the cell tower rather than a personally identifiable signal. It accomplishes this by acting as a proxy or mediator for a virtual mobile network operator, such as Boost or Cricket. The engineers developed the protocol in which the user pays the bills, and the provider offers an anonymous token, which is cryptographically signed. Now, the identification in a certain area is distinct from the fact that a phone was located at a certain place.
The method not only adds up negligible latency but also does not introduce new bottlenecks, thereby avoiding the scalability issues that plague current anonymity networks. The single server dedicated to offering service can simultaneouslyhandle tens of millions of users via the network operator.
While the system operates by inhibiting a phone from revealing the identity of its owner to a cell tower, all other location-based applications comprising maps, GPS-based commuting applications, and other apps function normally. The researchers anticipated that the system would be adopted as default by major networks, especially during the elevated legal concern to implement new privacy regulations.
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