Social Network

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has rescheduled a workshop aimed at getting industry ideas for mining data obtained through social networks without infringing on the privacy of individuals from this month to next month, according to an amended notice posted this week on Federal Business Opportunities:

In recent years, interest in social networks has dramatically increased. Massive amounts of social network data are being collected for military, government and commercial purposes. In all three sectors, there is an ever growing need for the exchange or publication of this data for analysis and scientific research activities. However, this data is rich in private details about individuals whose privacy must be protected and great care must be taken to do so. A major technical challenge for social network data exchange and publication is the simultaneous preservation of data privacy and security on the one hand and information utility on the other. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) is requesting information on areas of research related to the technology required to meet this challenge.

Responses to DARPA's request for information are now due by noon on Sept. 10, and an agency-sponsored workshop has been pushed back from Sept. 27-28 to Oct. 4-5, according to the FedBizOpps notice, "in Arlington, VA, for the purpose of reviewing and discussing current and future research relevant to this RFI. Information discussed at this workshop may assist in the formulation of possible future areas of DARPA research with the objective of creating tools and techniques for the anonymization of social network data."