BT-Crowds: Crowds-Style Anonymity with Bluetooth and Java

This paper aims to describe a new idea on how privacy in a Crowds-style network could be enhanced by running it over Bluetooth personal area networking. A potential implementation is described using the Java Bluetooth programming interface. The proposal is called BT-Crowds and it describes a store-and-forward Crowds and remailer-style service which uses the Bluetooth protocol stack and provides a system for privacy-enhanced communications that has some significant benefits over Crowds in fixed networks. It leverages the property of a single Bluetooth user being indistinguishable from a group of many, and the property of ad hoc networks being distributed in physical space.