Recipient-Aware Photo Automatic Deletion Control Policy Recommendation Scheme in Online Social Networks

Haiyang Luo, Zhe Sun, Yunqing Sun, Ang Li, Binghui Wang, Jin Cao, Ben Niu

Published: 01 May 2025, Last Modified: 05 Nov 2025IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure ComputingEveryoneRevisionsCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Content sharing, whether in Online Social Networks (OSNs) or even in the Internet of Things (IoT), serves as a pivotal link in the flow of data. To better protect the privacy of shared content, current OSNs allow sharers to manually set policies for uploaded content. However, this method of policy setting is not suitable for scenarios where IoT is deeply integrated with OSNs, as IoT devices often share content frequently and automatically. To address this issue, we propose the design, implementation, and evaluation of SmartCircles, a personalized photo-sharing and automatic deletion scheme. SmartCircles can function as a plugin within existing OSNs, supporting operations on various smart devices. It encompasses the following steps: a) Before sharing a photo, calculate the intimacy level depicted in the photo and the sharer's willingness to share. b) Before the recipient views the photo, calculate the intimacy between the sharer and the recipient, and evaluate feedback from the recipient. c) Based on the results computed above and a trade-off between profit and loss, recommend a recipient-aware automatic deletion control policy for the photo. We implement a prototype of SmartCircles, and the evaluation results demonstrate its effectiveness with an accuracy rate of policy recommendations reaching approximately 92%.
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