Privacy

MIT and Harvard University researchers have developed a platform, called Riverbed, that ensures that web services adhere to users’ preferences on how their data are stored and shared in the cloud.

Putting data privacy in the hands of users

New platform forces data center servers to only use data in ways that users explicitly approve.

February 20, 2019

MIT researchers find that the growing practice of compiling massive datasets about people’s movement patterns for urban planning and development research may, in fact, put people’s private data at risk — even if that data is anonymized.

The privacy risks of compiling mobility data

Merging different types of location-stamped data can make it easier to discern users’ identities, even when the data is anonymized.

December 7, 2018

MIT researchers have developed a cryptographic system that could help neural networks identify promising drug candidates in massive pharmacological datasets while keeping the data private, which could enable broader pooling of sensitive pharmacological data for predictive drug discovery.

Cryptographic protocol enables greater collaboration in drug discovery

Neural network that securely finds potential drugs could encourage large-scale pooling of sensitive data.

October 18, 2018

Computer scientists from MIT and IPRI propose a new cryptographic system to improve accountability of government surveillance while maintaining enough confidentiality for the police to do their jobs.

Holding law-enforcement accountable for electronic surveillance

CSAIL system encourages government transparency using cryptography on a public log of wiretap requests.

August 8, 2018

Cleverly dividing information among multiple servers lets an MIT system protects the privacy of contributors to genomic databases in a way that is much more computationally efficient than standard cryptographic techniques.

Protecting confidentiality in genomic studies

Cryptographic system could enable “crowdsourced” genomics, with volunteers contributing information to privacy-protected databases.

May 7, 2018

Generally, a browser won’t know where the data it downloaded has ended up. Even if it did, it wouldn’t necessarily have authorization from the operating system to delete it.

Private browsing gets more private

New system patches security holes left open by web browsers’ private-browsing functions.

February 22, 2018

Catherine Tucker, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management ,and Amalia R. Miller, an economist at the University of Virginia, were motivated to conduct the research because personal genetics is “an area where privacy really, really matters, when you think about how sensitive potentially your genomic data is.” States have adopted privacy laws precisely to ensure that apparent genetic ris...

How privacy policies affect genetic testing

Study: State-level disclosure laws affect patients’ eagerness to have their DNA tested.

December 12, 2017

The MIT Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems hosted the Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop on May 11-12, 2017 at the MIT Media Lab.

LIDS Smart Urban Infrastructures Workshop highlights emerging research

Speakers from academia, industry, and government discuss the evolution of smart urban systems.

May 31, 2017

Tim Berners-Lee was honored with the Turing Award for his work inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and "the fundamental protocols and algorithms [that allowed] the web to scale."

Tim Berners-Lee wins $1 million Turing Award

CSAIL researcher honored for inventing the web and developing the protocols that spurred its global use.

April 4, 2017

An MIT report urges the Trump administration to develop a coherent cybersecurity plan that coordinates efforts across departments, encourages investment, and removes parts of key infrastructure, like the electric grid, from the internet.

MIT experts urge Trump administration to take immediate action on cybersecurity

Report warns of hacking risk to electric grid, oil pipelines, and other critical infrastructure.

March 28, 2017

Most website visits these days entail a database query — to look up airline flights, for example, or to find the fastest driving route between two addresses.

Protecting web users’ privacy

System for disguising database queries could prevent customer profiling and price gouging.

March 23, 2017

CNBC's Eamon Javers (left) with Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan (center) and former NSA counsel Rajesh De.

Cambridge Cyber Summit convenes industry, academia, and government

Hosted by CSAIL, event featured discussions on cybersecurity with tech leaders and officials from the NSA and FBI.

October 12, 2016

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Indiana University at Bloomington describe a new system that permits database queries for genome-wide association studies but reduces the chances of privacy compromises to almost zero.

Protecting privacy in genomic databases

System helps ensure databases used in medical research will not leak patients’ personal information.

August 9, 2016

Researchers at MIT and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have developed a new anonymity scheme that provides strong security guarantees but uses bandwidth much more efficiently than its predecessors.

How to stay anonymous online

Network can protect users’ anonymity if all but one of its servers are compromised.

July 11, 2016

“[W]hen you send location data as a secondary piece of information, it is extremely simple for people with very little technical knowledge to find out where you work or live,” Ilaria Liccardi says.

We know where you live

From location data alone, even low-tech snoopers can identify Twitter users’ homes, workplaces.

May 17, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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