Detail výsledku
Hiding in Plain Sight: Query Obfuscation via Random Multilingual Searches
Modern search engines extensively personalize results by building detailed user
profiles based on query history and behaviour. While personalization can enhance
relevance, it introduces privacy risks and can lead to filter bubbles. This paper
proposes and evaluates a lightweight, client-side query obfuscation strategy
using randomly generated multilingual search queries to disrupt user profiling.
Through controlled experiments on the Seznam.cz search engine, we assess the
impact of interleaving real queries with obfuscating noise in various language
configurations and ratios. Our findings show that while displayed search results
remain largely stable, the search engine's identified user interests shift
significantly under obfuscation. We further demonstrate that such random queries
can prevent accurate profiling and overwrite established user profiles. This
study provides practical evidence for query obfuscation as a viable
privacy-preserving mechanism and introduces a tool that enables users to
autonomously protect their search behaviour without modifying existing
infrastructure.
user profiling, personalization, search engines, random search, anonymization
@inproceedings{BUT193583,
author="Anton {Firc} and Jan {Klusáček} and Kamil {Malinka}",
title="Hiding in Plain Sight: Query Obfuscation via Random Multilingual Searches",
booktitle="Coppens, B., Volckaert, B., Naessens, V., De Sutter, B. (eds) Availability, Reliability and Security",
year="2025",
pages="253--268",
publisher="Springer Nature Switzerland AG",
address="Ghent",
doi="10.1007/978-3-032-00633-2\{_}15",
isbn="978-3-032-00633-2",
url="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-00633-2_15"
}