COMP 590: Privacy Enhancing Technologies

Spring 2024
Instructor: Saba Eskandarian
Contact: saba@cs.unc.edu
TAs: Grace Coleman and Katie Cornette
Class Meetings: Tues/Thurs 2-3:15pm, FB009
Office Hours: Tues 3:15-4:15pm, FB346
Syllabus
Course Project Details
Anonymous Feedback

Course Description

This class covers a combination of fundamental tools and recent developments in privacy-preserving technologies. The first half of the course will cover cryptographic tools that can be used to build privacy-preserving systems, and the second half will cover various privacy-preserving technologies, including both research contributions and deployed systems. Along the way we will discuss how to think about the technology we create and its impact on society.

The class is intended for undergraduate students who are interested in thinking about what technology can do to protect privacy and why modern technology so often fails to do so. Prior experience in security or privacy, while welcome, is by no means required.

Class meetings will consist of a mix of lectures and discussions, with responses to pre-discussion readings being an important component. Students will also complete a substantial course project on a relevant topic of their choosing. See the syllabus for more details.

Course Schedule

Class titles are followed by required readings for that day (if any).

Introduction

• Jan 11: How to Share a Secret
  
• Jan 16: Privacy
  
  • Privacy and Human Behavior in the Age of Information
  • A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online
• Jan 18: Cryptography Concepts: Confidentiality
  

A Crash Course in Cryptography

• Jan 23: Cryptography Concepts: Integrity
  
  • Keeping Secrets
• Jan 25: Hands-On Cryptography! (files)
  
• Jan 30: Side Channel Attacks
  
  • Compression and Information Leakage of Plaintext
  • BREACH: Reviving the CRIME Attack
  • Optional: How to Read a Paper
• Feb 1: Cryptography Concepts: Prime Time
  
• Feb 6: Internet Attacks
  
  • Mining Your Ps and Qs: Detection of Widespread Weak Keys in Network Devices
  • How to Read a Paper

Privacy, Anonymity, and Surveillance, Part I

• Feb 8: Privacy and Anonymity Online
  
• Feb 15: Surveillance
  
  • SuperVision: An Introduction to the Surveillance Society (only introduction required)
  • Vernacular Resistance to Data Collection and Analysis: A Political Theory of Obfuscation
• Feb 20: Data Privacy in the US
  Quiz 1 today
  
  • The State of Consumer Data Privacy Laws in the US
  • Guess What? HIPAA Isn't a Medical Privacy Law

Private Computation Tools

• Feb 22: Multiparty Computation
  
• Feb 27: Hands-On MPC! (files)
  
• Feb 29: Differential Privacy
  Sign up for the story you will tell on March 7 by Friday, March 1.
  
• Mar 5: MPC and DP Deployments
  
  • Deploying MPC for Social Good (slides)
  • Issues Encountered Deploying Differential Privacy
  • Differential privacy deployments from the US Census and Apple
  • Optional: Callisto: A Cryptographic Approach to Detecting Serial Perpetrators of Sexual Misconduct

Contextualizing Cryptography

• Mar 7: Story Time!
  The history of cryptography is full of amazing stories. Today we will each take turns telling one such story. The following books are good places to consider looking for a story. They are all available in the university libraries, and I also have copies in my office that you can use.
  • The Codebreakers, by David Kahn
  • Code Girls, by Liza Mundy
  • Crypto, by Steven Levy
  • The Code Book, by Simon Singh
• Mar 19: Other Real-World Threat Models
  
  • The Million Dollar Dissident
  • "A Stalker's Paradise": How Intimate Partner Abusers Exploit Technology

Privacy, Anonymity, and Surveillance, Part II

• Mar 21: Anonymity, Mixnets, DC-nets
  
• Mar 26: The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work
  
  • Do Artifacts Have Politics?
  • The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work (Through Part 3)
  • Crypto for the People
• Apr 2: Hands-On Anonymity! (files)
  
• Apr 4: Anonymity and Censorship
  Project proposals due
  
  • Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router
  • Encore: Lightweight Measurement of Web Censorship with Cross-Origin Requests
• Apr 9: Quiz
  Quiz 2 today
  
• Apr 11: Private Messaging and Crypto Wars
  
  • What's New in the US Crypto Wars? (first 30 min)
  • Keys Under Doormats

Bonus Topics

• Apr 16: Research Talks
  Hear about recent research in the UNC Applied Cryptography group! We'll also talk more generally about getting involved in research.
• Apr 18: Spam and Cybercrime Ecosystems
  Project update due (template)
  
  • Massive Losses Define Epidemic of 'Pig Butchering'
  • Framing Dependencies Introduced by Underground Commoditization
• Apr 23: Blockchains and Bitcoin, Part 1
  
• Apr 25: Blockchains and Bitcoin, Part 2
  
• Apr 30: Project Presentations
  
• Final Exam Day (Friday, May 3, 12pm): Project Presentations
  Project final report due on scheduled final exam day