A framework for safely publishing communication traces.

A communication trace is a detailed record of the communication between two entities. Communication traces are vital for research in computer networks and study of network protocols in various domains, but their release is severely constrained by privacy and security concerns. In this paper, we propose a framework in which a trace owner can match an anonymizing transformation with the requirements of analysts. The trace owner can release multiple transformed traces, each customized to an analyst's needs, or a single transformation satisfying all requirements. The framework enables formal reasoning about anonymization policies, for example to verify that a given trace has utility for the analyst, or to obtain the most secure anonymization for the desired level of utility. Because communication traces are typically very large, we also provide techniques that allow efficient application of transformations using relational database systems.