4 ms·

Google should be funding the heck out of this guy. Privacy concerns are only going to get bigger in the future, and the reason for that is simple: companies lik

Google should be funding the heck out of this guy. Privacy concerns are only going to get bigger in the future, and the reason for that is simple: companies like Google are inevitably going to want more and more data. So at least they should be trying to do that in a privacy-friendly way.

Ar-Curunir 12y ago
Why would they willingly deprive themselves of large amounts of user data?
- xnull 12y ago
  Adapting Ur-Beowulf to Ar-Curunir and Grendle to Google: "So the Shieldings' hero, hard-pressed and enraged, took a firm hold of the hilt and swung the blade in an arc, a resolute blow that bit deep into her neck-bone and severed it entirely, toppling the doomed house of her flesh; she fell to the floor. The sword dripped blood, the swordsman was elated. (1563-1569)" Sometimes the better product makes less profit. It's hard for someone with Capitalistic incentives to respond with a better product if delaying/discouraging/regulating-out-of-existence is cheaper.
  - Ar-Curunir 12y ago
    Oh I would love to create a search engine that would preserve the privacy of its users, but I just don't foresee Google doing that. I'm aiming at studying Theoretical Cryptography, with an interest in MPC specifically, so this would be right up my alley, but my pessimistic world view tells me that any efforts to create more secure and privacy-preserving services will fail because of institutional opposition and low market demand.
    - xnull2guest 12y ago
      We're on the same page. There's been tons of great work in the past couple years (Smart's SPDZ and others). The financial model has to use something like a pay-per-search instead of the usual ad model (although technically even better ads could be served over SMPC!). If you're interested in studying this you're also probably interested in 1-k Oblivious Transfers (get me a static webpage I request out of a choice of k without revealing which I've requested), in Functional Encryption and also in Securely Obfuscated Programs. Also, there was a really awesome paper at CRYPTO this year: "How to Use Bitcoin to Design Fair Protocols" (http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/129.pdf http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/129.pdf) :)
deleted 12y ago
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hyperbovine 12y ago
I'm certain ibm is already paying him quite well to sit in a room and stare into space, and will continue to do so for as long as he desires it. Google is not the be-all-end-all of cs research funding.

Ar-Curunir 12y ago

Why would they willingly deprive themselves of large amounts of user data?

xnull 12y ago
Adapting Ur-Beowulf to Ar-Curunir and Grendle to Google: "So the Shieldings' hero, hard-pressed and enraged, took a firm hold of the hilt and swung the blade in an arc, a resolute blow that bit deep into her neck-bone and severed it entirely, toppling the doomed house of her flesh; she fell to the floor. The sword dripped blood, the swordsman was elated. (1563-1569)" Sometimes the better product makes less profit. It's hard for someone with Capitalistic incentives to respond with a better product if delaying/discouraging/regulating-out-of-existence is cheaper.
- Ar-Curunir 12y ago
  Oh I would love to create a search engine that would preserve the privacy of its users, but I just don't foresee Google doing that. I'm aiming at studying Theoretical Cryptography, with an interest in MPC specifically, so this would be right up my alley, but my pessimistic world view tells me that any efforts to create more secure and privacy-preserving services will fail because of institutional opposition and low market demand.
  - xnull2guest 12y ago
    We're on the same page. There's been tons of great work in the past couple years (Smart's SPDZ and others). The financial model has to use something like a pay-per-search instead of the usual ad model (although technically even better ads could be served over SMPC!). If you're interested in studying this you're also probably interested in 1-k Oblivious Transfers (get me a static webpage I request out of a choice of k without revealing which I've requested), in Functional Encryption and also in Securely Obfuscated Programs. Also, there was a really awesome paper at CRYPTO this year: "How to Use Bitcoin to Design Fair Protocols" (http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/129.pdf http://eprint.iacr.org/2014/129.pdf) :)

deleted 12y ago

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hyperbovine 12y ago

I'm certain ibm is already paying him quite well to sit in a room and stare into space, and will continue to do so for as long as he desires it. Google is not the be-all-end-all of cs research funding.