Summaryof

IsMoreAlwaysMerrier? ADeepDiveIntoOnlineSocialFootprints
TerenceChen,MohamedAliKaafar,ArikFriedman,andRoksanaBoreli Totalnumberofwords:882 VasantRaghav,B.Tech[2010094] August20,2013

Motivationfortheauthors: Priorworkfocusedupon: Quantifyingonlinesocialfootprints. Analysingthethreatthatonlinesocialfootprintsposesinthecaseof: Identitytheft Accountpasswordresetattacks Authorsofthisresearchpaperwantedtoexploreaboutthefactorscontributingfortherisein abovecyberattacks.Theycentredtheirstudyaroundsocialfootprintsastheyhadasuperficial ideaofitsdirectproportionalitywiththenumberofOSNsandwantedtoprovethesame. ProblemStatementSet: ToperformanalysisoftheinformationlistedinpublicprofilesofusershavingmultipleOSNprofilesand alsotoscrutinizeonhowusersdisclosetheirpersonalinformationacrossit. Methodology: 1. DataCollection a. Around35kgoogleprofileswererandomlyselectedfromapoolof3milliongoogle profiles. b. GooglehasaspecialfeatureoflinkagewherebyotherprofileslikeYoutube,Orkutetc. caneasilybecrawledupon. c. Externalwebpagessocialaggregationserviceswerealsocrawleduponinorderto includeexternalOSNs. d. Allinall10OSNswereusedforthisstudyafterhavinggatheredsubstantialdata. 2. OnlineSocialFootprints a. Thereare40typesofattributesavailablepublicallywhichforauserspansbetween 5.410.2 b. Theaveragenumberofattributesheremeantthattheyarenonoverlappingacross multipleOSNsforauser. 3. Demographiccorrelations a. Demographiccorrelationswerecarriedoutonthebasisofgender,age,occupation, countryofresidence. b. PseudonymnameprofilesandrealnameprofileswerecomparedwithLinkedinto

determineconfidencelevelbetweenthetwoprofilesasuserstendtoprovidecorrect informationonLinkedin. 4. ComplementarityandConsistencyofprofiles: a. SokalandMichenersimilaritymetricswasused. 5. Crosslinkingwithaustralianphonedirectory a. TPRwasusedtomeasureaccuracyinachievingtrueresultsofrecordswithinthedefined radius. b. FPRgavetheoppositeofTPR. Results: Demographiccorrelationresults: smallersocialfootprintsizeisobservedforuserswhodonotdisplaytheiragepublicly. youngersusersareinterestedinsharingaboutattributesthataretrendyamongtheirpeers eg.music,books,tvshowsetc.whereasolderusersaremoreconventionalinnatureand shareattributeslikereligiousandpoliticalviews. Usershavingajobprofileofcustomerserviceeg.marketing,realestateetc.tendtoshare moreattributesthanusershavinganyotherjobprofileeg.teacher,studentetc. OnOSNsiteslikeGoogle,FacebookandFlickr,userstendtosharetheirrealname whereasforsiteslikeYoutube,Blogger,LiveJournal,theytendtosharefakenames. Userswhosharetheirfakenamehaveingeneralasmallersocialfootprintincomparison totheirrealnameOSNprofile. Around68%usersrevealedtheirage,75%ofusersgenderand90%userstheirjob profile. OnlineSocialFootprints socialfootprintssizeincreaseswiththenumberofOSNprofilesforauser. Complementarityandconsistencyscores: 90%usershaveaveragecomplementarityscore>0.5,whichprovesthatonaveragetwo OSNprofilesofthesameuserarecomplementarytoeachother. With65%consistencymean,itshowsthat85%ofusershave>50%matchingattributes. Crosslinkingwithaustralianphonedirectoryresults: Australianphonebookcomprisedof: personsname address phonenumber Thedetailsfromthisphonebookwerecrosslinkedwiththedatacollectedfrommultiple OSNstoretrievemoreinformationabouttheuser. 20kmprovidedthebestbalancebetweenTPRandFPR. mostaustralianusersindicatedgreatercityareaastheirlocation. addedinformationfromlinkedOSNsenabledaneasierrouteforrecordlinkages. 5timesincrementforthenumberofuserswhowereuniquelyidentified 3timesincrementforthenumberofuserswhohad5orfewermatchingrecords.

Conclusion: AstheusercreatesmoreOSNprofilesforhimself,hetendstosharemoreattributes consciously/subconsciouslythanundernormalcircumstancesofhavingasingleOSNprofile. TheishighlevelofconsistencyandcomplementarityofinformationprovidedbytheuseronOSNs andthiscanbeaggregatedovermultipleOSNstoretrievemoreinformationaboutthatuser. Limitations: Profilesexaminedbytheauthorsarebiasedtowardsgoogleusers. Fortheanalysisofpseudonymbasedprofiles,onlyenglishnameswereconsideredandnamesin foreignlanguagewerediscarded. OSNslikeYoutubeandlast.fmconflinedpublicuserinformationtotheirrespectivecountry. Myspacelackedlocationattribute. SomeusersmightprovidefalseorcasualinformationonLinkedin.Cleaningupofthiserroneous datahasn'tbeenmentionedanywhereinthepaper. ConstructivePointers: TheirstudytookintoaccountagreatersetofOSNs. Itprovideddemographicbasedanalysisinclusiveofjobprofileandusageofpseudonyms. Theylimitedthenumberoftargetprofilestoovercomecomplexityofcrawlingandsavetime. Learnings: FromthispaperIhaverealisedabouthowdespiteofcreatingmultipleprofilesforspecified purposes,usercanstillbetrackedandexploited.Ipersonallyhave2youtubeprofileswithfake names,onetwitterprofilewhereisharemythoughtsextensively,andonefacebookprofilewhichi justuseforsocialnetworkingandmessagingpurpose.Havingsaidthat,IfeelnowIcanbecome morecautiousaboutpublicattributesIdshare.