Private Information Retrieval Scheme Combined with E-Payment in Querying Valuable Information

In the online retrieving valuable information in special databases, it is important to protect the privacy of users preventing the server from knowing the information what the users retrieve. Although a private information retrieval (PIR) scheme allows a user to retrieve a date item from online database while hiding the index of the data item from the database server. However, retrieving valuable information is another problem needs to be solved. Most transactions are completed by credit card through delivering id number and the personal data of the user in the Internet to the server. Then the server will know the privacy of users. It will become a challenge to PIR schemes considering the e-payment need. In this paper, a novel PIR scheme is proposed which uses a secure coprocessor (SC), with e-payment scheme for protecting the privacy of customers in querying valuable information. The scheme will not reveal personal information or buying information of customers in the internet environment, it can really protect the customers' privacy.