Controllable privacy preserving search based on symmetric predicate encryption in cloud storage

Predicate encryption is a novel cryptographic primitive that provides fine-grained control over the accesses to encrypted data. It is often used in secure cloud storage and biometric matching. In this manuscript, we first propose a variant of symmetric predicate encryption, which provides controllable privacy preserving search functionalities, including revocable delegated search and un-decryptable delegated search. Due to these functionalities, the owner of a cloud storage can easily control the lifetimes and search privileges of cloud data.

► We model controllable privacy preserving search functionalities in cloud storage. ► The secret key owner can easily revoke the search privileges. ► The delegated person cannot get the knowledge of the retrieved data even though he has the delegated privilege of search. ► It is especially suitable for delegation-based business applications in cloud computing.