Employing Invisible Unicode Characters for Preserving Privacy and Enhancing Communication Security
Mahmoud A. Khalifa, Iman Almomani, Walid El‐Shafai · 2024
In an era where digital privacy con-cerns are paramount, unconventional methods for safeguarding personal information have emerged. This paper delves into the innovative use of non-printable Unicode characters to bypass mandatory field requirements in online forms. This technique offers a new dimension to privacy protection in digital interactions. By exploiting invisible Unicode characters, such as$\mathrm{U}+202\mathrm{E}$(RIGHT- TO-LEFT OVERRIDE) and$\mathrm{U}+200\mathrm{C}$(ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER), users can fulfill form requirements with-out disclosing some of their personal information, thus leaving no digital footprint. Our investigation not only catalogs these invisible characters but also evaluates their effectiveness across various platforms, including social media, online forms, and conference registration forms. Also, we in-vestigated the case of enhancing communication security by incorporating Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with invisible Unicode characters. Overall, this research aims to shed light on the prospective privacy benefits afforded by these char-acters, explore the security implications of their application, and recommend strategies for users and developers to employ this method of privacy protection responsibly.