Quantification of User Privacy Loss

Sammanfattning: With the advent of communication age newer, faster and arguably better ways of moving information are at our disposal. People felt the need to stay connected which led to the evolution of smart gadgets like cell phones, tablets and laptops. The next generations of automobiles are keen in extending this connectivity to the vehicle user by arming themselves with radio interfaces. This move will enable the formation of vehicular networks where each car (mobile node) will be an instance of mobile ad hoc networks, popularly referred as Vehicular AdHoc Networks (VANETS). These networks will provide further necessary infrastructure for applications that can help improving safety and efficiency of road traffic as well as provide useful services for the mobile nodes (cars). The specific nature of VANETS brings up the need to address necessary security and privacy issues to be integrated into the social world. Thus, the open field of secure inter-vehicular communication promises an interesting research area. This thesis aims to quantify how much of a user trajectory can an adversary identify while monitoring non-safety applications in VANETS. Different types of adversaries, their attacks and possible non-safety applications are also discussed.