MC2 Internal Tech Seminar by Dr. Jennifer Golbeck and Dr. Elaine Shi

Mon Nov 12, 2012 12:00 PM

Location: 4172 A.V. Williams Building (AVW)

Registration required. Click here to register for this seminar.

Talk 1: "Trust, User Profiling, and Privacy in Social Media" Dr. Jennifer Golbeck

Abstract: Users share vast amounts of information about themselves in social media. Some data is shared directly and others can be inferred by learning over their language, behavior, and interactions. In this talk, Dr. Golbeck will present an overview of her work on computing trust in social networks and on profiling information about users based on their online behavior. She will follow that with some of her current work that integrates this and other techniques into applications for security, intelligence, and military applications.

Talk 2: "Cloud Data Protection for the Masses" by Dr. Elaine Shi

Abstract: Although cloud computing promises numerous benefits, including lower costs, rapid scaling, easier maintenance, and ubiquitous availability, a key challenge is how to protect users' data in the cloud. Today, users effectively lose control of their data in the cloud, and if either the cloud infrastructure or applications are compromised, users' privacy will be at risk. The ubiquitous concern over cloud data privacy demands a paradigm shift, such that users can retain control of their data in the cloud, and verify that the cloud providers have correctly enforced their privacy policies.

In this talk, Dr. Shi will describe several enabling technologies towards this vision. Specifically, she will talk about 1) How to safeguard users' data against potentially compromised applications; 2) How to safeguard users' data against a potentially compromised computation provider; and 3) How to safeguard users' data against a potentially compromised storage provider.

Dr. Shi will also talk about her ongoing efforts at integrating these technologies to provide a cloud infrastructure which offers data protection at the platform level. In this way, users can benefit from the rich cloud applications without worrying about the privacy of their data; and application developers can focus on developing functionality while offloading the burden of providing security and privacy to the cloud platform.