A Multi-Hop Privacy-Preserving Reputation Scheme in Online Social Networks

Online Social Networks (OSNs) are becoming immensely popular nowadays, and they change the ways people think and live. In this paper, we propose a novel reputation system which allows users to find potential connections between unfamiliar people based on the most updated friend list of each user in OSNs. To some extent, our scheme provides a way to judge people in OSNs without real interactions, but based on the existing overall attitudes on particular people. Moreover, our scheme can protect the confidentially of the potential relationships in which no one is able to acquire the detailed connections between two end nodes. Contrary to those which publish each individual's reputation online, we treat the reputation value in our system as a private issue that has been carefully guaranteed.