An overview of secure friend matching in mobile social networks

Mobile users constitute one of the biggest areas of growth in the online market, so it is no surprise that mobile social networks have begun becoming more and more popular. Mobile social networks have also become quite as sophisticated as non mobile powerhouses like facebook. Positioning technologies such as Wireless localization techniques, and Global Positioning System gives rise to location-aware social networks. It allows mobile users to connect and converse with each other within a local physical proximity, based on some criteria such as similar interests and hobbies. But the location data posted to social networks are revealing sources, too. Hence Friend matching has become the sensitive part of Mobile social networks. It's really a challenge for developers to preserve the privacy of users' private information. This paper briefly peeks into the generalized friend matching process in mobile social networks and also gives the overview of various privacy preserving friend matching schemes, which are already established.