Anonymous and confidential communications with PDA

Speaker: Carlos Molina

Abstract

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have the potential to be the most numerous computers next century. They are cheap enough (currently about $500) to be affordable by everybody and powerful enough to be used as datebooks, notepads, word processors, and as mobile communicators for e--mail, accessing remote services (data bases and Web pages) and performing commercial transactions. However, the acceptance of PDAs as handy communicators depends heavily on how easy it is for a lay person to purchase or borrow a PDA, turn it on and put it to work. Equally important is the guarantee that the change to PDAs will not compromise the rights of confidentiality and anonymity that users are used to. A model based on the public phone box service operated by metal coins is presented as a possible solution to hide the identity of the PDA user. The use of public and secret keys encryption mechanisms guarantees confidentiality.