A Study on Privacy-Preserving Auctions Considering Possible Collusions

An auction can be used in various domains, such as cloud computing, data trading, energy trading, and spectrum allocation, which can help to identify the true value of selling goods. The introduction of the Internet has already paved the way for electronic auction (e-auction). Electronic auctions have several benefits over traditional physical auctions; however, in e-auctions, privacy becomes a major issue. Many works are reported in the literature to address this issue. Collusion of various entities involved in the auction, such as bidder, seller, auctioneer, etc. However, most works related to privacy-preserving auctions lack the consideration of collusion of involved entities. In this paper, we have discussed various important works related to privacy-preserving auctions and their associated issues. Problems created due to the collusion of entities in the works are also discussed. We also summarized works in allied disciplines where privacy-preserving auctions are applied. We have also discussed the future research directions in brief.