TY - GEN
T1 - Linking virtual and real-world identities
AU - Alsarkal, Yaqoub
AU - Zhang, Nan
AU - Zhou, Yilu
N1 - Funding Information:
Nan Zhang was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants 0852674, 0915834, 1117297, and 1343976, and by the Army Research Office under grant W911NF-15-1-0020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/7/23
Y1 - 2015/7/23
N2 - Today, one can find from the web vast amount of information about an individual. Specifically, such information can be classified into two categories, virtual and real-world identities. This paper addresses a novel problem of linking these two types of identities based on information publicly available on the web. We start by studying how one can link virtual identities (i.e., user profiles) at Twitter with real-world identities at Whitepages.com (containing personal information such as name, age, relatives, etc.). We demonstrate that a substantial portion (at least 0.17%) of Twitter users in the U.S. can indeed be potentially linked to their real-world identities through information available at Whitepages.com, revealing sensitive personal data. We discuss the implications of such identity linkages on both individual privacy and law enforcement, and also point out the future studies required in this topic.
AB - Today, one can find from the web vast amount of information about an individual. Specifically, such information can be classified into two categories, virtual and real-world identities. This paper addresses a novel problem of linking these two types of identities based on information publicly available on the web. We start by studying how one can link virtual identities (i.e., user profiles) at Twitter with real-world identities at Whitepages.com (containing personal information such as name, age, relatives, etc.). We demonstrate that a substantial portion (at least 0.17%) of Twitter users in the U.S. can indeed be potentially linked to their real-world identities through information available at Whitepages.com, revealing sensitive personal data. We discuss the implications of such identity linkages on both individual privacy and law enforcement, and also point out the future studies required in this topic.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84963771043&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84963771043&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ISI.2015.7165938
DO - 10.1109/ISI.2015.7165938
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84963771043
T3 - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics: Securing the World through an Alignment of Technology, Intelligence, Humans and Organizations, ISI 2015
SP - 49
EP - 54
BT - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics
A2 - Zhou, Lina
A2 - Wang, G. Alan
A2 - Mao, Wenji
A2 - Kaati, Lisa
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 13th IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, ISI 2015
Y2 - 27 May 2015 through 29 May 2015
ER -