Provable network activity for protecting users against false accusation

Abstract

With the proliferation of the World Wide Web, data traces that correspond to users’ network activity can be collected by several Internet actors, including (i) web sites, (ii) smartphone apps, and even (iii) Internet Service Providers. Given that the collection and storage of these data are beyond the control of the end user, these data traces can be easily manipulated, if not, tampered with. The result of such manipulated digital traces can be severe: Innocent users can be shamed or even wrongfully accused of carrying out illegal transactions. To eliminate these potential accusations on innocent users, we introduce Provable Network Activity (PNA): a framework with which the ISPs can give the end users control of their stored traces. The framework guarantees that the information collected for the end users is accurate and will remain accurate for as long as it is stored. Our implementation and preliminary evaluation suggest that PNA is fast, easy to deploy, and introduces zero network latency to the end clients.