“Server-less” Social Network for Enhanced Privacy

A privacy issue regarding social networks nowadays is the fact that users’ posted data is stored on company-owned servers, adding a third person in between the sender and the receiver. We propose Square Pigeon, an android application which offers a fresh take on the traditional social network model. A server is used for all administrative and coordination overhead to lighten the load off the mobile devices. Security and privacy are provided through bypassing the server and using a p2p network to send all shared data. The use of mobile devices as a main platform presents resource constraints, such as energy efficiency and quota availability, and reliability constraints since we need to offer an acceptable QoS compared to current social networks. Sending data p2p decreases the QoS, but this is compensated by the added security. A performance analysis for transmission rates and delays is therefore conducted.