Microsoft Privacy Research
Microsoft Research scientists conduct basic and applied research in computer science, software engineering, and the interaction between information and communications technology and society.
Here are a few of the cutting-edge privacy projects currently under way.
Database Privacy
This project focuses on privacy challenges related to revealing accurate statistics about a population while preserving the privacy of individuals within that population. The central concept is "differential privacy," which allows individuals or small groups to opt in or opt out of a database without altering the statistical properties of the database. Moreover, differential privacy limits the risk that a database can be cross-correlated with other databases to reveal the identity of an individual.
Social Media Collective
This project explores people’s practices and attitudes when interacting through social media applications, such as instant messaging, online chat, and social networking websites. Focal points include people’s expectations and concerns about privacy and how these might vary among different age groups.
Cryptographic Cloud Structure
Researchers are working on cryptographic tools that will enable an individual or organization to help secure data stored in the cloud, even if the data resides on a computer infrastructure that is not controlled or trusted by the user. Potential outcomes of this project include tools that enable patients to generate and store keys to encrypt their information and give them full control over which organizations can access which portions of their health information.
Details about these and other privacy-related research projects, including scientific white papers and results summaries, can be found at the Microsoft Research website. View a more detailed list of projects. Privacy and security projects can be filtered from this list by using the filtering options available on that page.
