How to retrieve priced data

Abstract

Databases are an indispensable resource for retrieving up-to-date information. However, curious database operators may be able to find out the users' interests when the users buy something from the database. For these cases, if the digital goods have the identical prices, then a $k$-out-of-$n$ oblivious transfer protocol could help the users to hide their choices, but when the goods have different prices, this would not work. In this paper, we propose a scheme to help users to keep their choices secret when buying priced digital goods from databases.