Towards Blockchain-Based GDPR-Compliant spontaneous and ephemeral social network

Abstract

Online Social Networks (OSNs) have rapidly integrated into our daily lives since their emergence in 2004, primarily serving as platforms for sharing personal information. This paper introduces a novel category of social networks: Spontaneous and Ephemeral Social Networks (SESNs). Unlike traditional OSNs, SESNs are event-centric, facilitating real-time connections and content sharing among participants within specific contexts. The main objective of SESNs is to improve the production, sharing, and consumption of digital content among network members. SESNs operate on a distributed peer-to-peer architecture using ad hoc mobile networks, leveraging the capability of mobile devices to communicate directly with each other in peer-to-peer mode. SESNs are ephemeral by nature, dissolving once participants disperse from the event location. However, for future analysis, some content may be retrievable from an external server after the event. A potential concern is that collaborative content creation within SESNs resembles crowdsourcing. However, in SESNs, the service provider may retain control over the data even after the event concludes. This centralized management of user-generated content could pose risks to user anonymity. To address these concerns, we propose a blockchain-based architecture that certifies transactions and ensures data anonymity in a decentralized manner. The proposed architecture demonstrates its robustness through a performance evaluation and a comprehensive security analysis. Our solution guarantees data integrity, confidentiality, privacy, anonymity, and network resilience. Additionally, blockchain technology is employed to ensure SESN compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).