EPSRC-Royal Society fellowship engagement (2012): Understanding, Measuring and Improving Online Privacy
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Computer Science and Technology
Abstract
Please refer to attached Royal Society application
Planned Impact
Please refer to attached Royal Society application
Organisations
- University of Cambridge (Lead Research Organisation)
- QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (Collaboration)
- University of Waterloo (Collaboration)
- University of California, Berkeley (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- Stanford University (Collaboration)
- Princeton University (Collaboration)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Collaboration)
- Lahore University of Management Sciences (Collaboration)
- University College London (Fellow)
Publications
Bano S
(2018)
Scanning the Internet for Liveness
in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
Khattak S
(2016)
SoK: Making Sense of Censorship Resistance Systems
in Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Khattak S.
(2017)
Characterization of Internet censorship from multiple perspectives
Khattak Sheharbano
(2014)
Systemization of Pluggable Transports for Censorship Resistance
in arXiv e-prints
Khattak, S
(2014)
A Look at the Consequences of Internet Censorship Through an ISP Lens
Khattak, S.
(2016)
Do You See What I See? Differential Treatment of Anonymous Users
Nithyanand R.
(2016)
Ad-Blocking and Counter Blocking: A Slice of the Arms Race
| Description | We have developed a methodology and tools to measure Internet filtering. Experiments were performed in applying these to real-world scenarios, specifically how Internet users are treated differently if they are using anonymous communication technologies and/or ad-blocking tools. More broadly, this work developed a taxonomy of approaches that can be taken to censor the Internet. The work also explored the topic of "liveness" within the context of network measurement and showed how different measurement techniques could result in radically different measurements of the number of computers supposedly active on the Internet. |
| Exploitation Route | The methodology is widely applicable to studying differential treatment of network traffic. During the course of the project, we have applied the methodology to the study of Internet censorship but it could also be applied to network neutrality research. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-897.html |
| Description | The work of this project showed that users of anonymous communications services were being significantly disadvantaged through having their access to many websites blocked. As a result of this disclosure and accompanying media coverage, follow-on research has investigated how to reduce this disadvantage while not permitting abuse through such services. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Cloudflare |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | As a result of my study, CloudFlare, one of the big Tor blockers, deployed abuse prevention methods that do not block non-abusive Tor users. |
| URL | https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/18361 |
| Description | Written Evidence: The UK Parliament Communications Committee's "The Internet: to regulate or not to regulate?" inquiry, Sep'18. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/communications-comm... |
| Title | Methodologies to measure censorship |
| Description | I developed 3 methodologies to measure Internet censorship |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | See my thesis. |
| URL | http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-897.html |
| Description | ICSI (UC Berkeley) |
| Organisation | University of California, Berkeley |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Collaborator Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Impact | 3 publications |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | LUMS |
| Organisation | Lahore University of Management Sciences |
| Department | Department of Economics |
| Country | Pakistan |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Research |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research |
| Impact | https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3213232.3213234 |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | MIT |
| Organisation | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Department | The Novartis-MIT Center for Continuous Manufacturing |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Research contribution |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research contribution |
| Impact | https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3213232.3213234 |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Princeton |
| Organisation | Princeton University |
| Department | Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Research |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research |
| Impact | https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3213232.3213234 |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | QMUL |
| Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Collaborator Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Impact | 1 paper |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Stanford |
| Organisation | Stanford University |
| Department | Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Research contribution |
| Collaborator Contribution | Research contribution |
| Impact | https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3213232.3213234 |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | UCL |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Collaborator Contribution | Measurement methodologies |
| Impact | 4 publications |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | University of Waterloo |
| Organisation | University of Waterloo |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Survey |
| Collaborator Contribution | Survey |
| Impact | 1 conference paper |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | CRASHH talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcaUE_49Ay0&feature=youtu.be&a= |
| Description | Cambridge TV interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Darwin College, University of Cambridge talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Guardian talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | IMC Vancouver talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | IRTF Workshop on Global Access to the Internet for All (GAIA) talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Imperial College London talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Kings College London talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | NDSS San Diego talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | QMUL talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | UCL talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | - |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |