How to Hide One's Relationships from Link Prediction Algorithms.

ABSTRACT: Our private connections can be exposed by link prediction algorithms. To date, this threat has only been addressed from the perspective of a central authority, completely neglecting the possibility that members of the social network can themselves mitigate such threats. We fill this gap by studying how an individual can rewire her own network neighborhood to hide her sensitive relationships. We prove that the optimization problem faced by such an individual is NP-complete, meaning that any attempt to identify an optimal way to hide one's relationships is futile. Based on this, we shift our attention towards developing effective, albeit not optimal, heuristics that are readily-applicable by users of existing social media platforms to conceal any connections they deem sensitive. Our empirica

SUBMITTER: Waniek M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6704149 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature