AAKA: An Anti-Tracking Cellular Authentication Scheme Leveraging Anonymous Credentials
Hexuan Yu
Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 2024 · Day 2 · Mobile & Authentication
The talk introduces **AAKA**, a novel Anti-Tracking Cellular Authentication Scheme designed to address the persistent privacy concern of mobile tracking by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). MNOs routinely collect granular geographic data and timestamps, enabling them to track subscriber locations and movements. This sensitive data is frequently sold to third-party data brokers or Location-based Service providers, leading to significant privacy violations, as evidenced by major U.S. carriers facing fines since 2020 for unauthorized disclosure of subscriber location records. The problem is exacerbated by advancements in localization technology, such as 5G New Radio's sub-meter precision, making real-time, fine-grained location information transparent to MNOs and facilitating detailed profiling and linkage attacks across the proliferating cellular-connected devices.