## 1 Introduction  
### _Technological Privacy in the Modern Day_  
Throughout everyday life, a person may expect a basic amount of privacy: locks on doors, shades on windows, fenced-in yards, lack of surveillance, etc. In our modern information society, however, there is also an increasing awareness that privacy expectations may be reduced in public environments and online activities. Categorizing these two philosophical systems could lead to an interpretation with two main privacy'spaces': personal and public. The approach to one's personal privacy space may be more commonly seen as influenced by current cultural norms along with individual preferences, thereby shaping expectations. The same applies to the public privacy space, where it has been agreed upon for societies to at least retain a basic amount of privacy per person. With the inclusion of technological devices, networks, and utilities in daily life, the problem of maintaining privacy and trust grows to large proportions.  
In the context of 5G networks, users have a basic expectation that their communications are secured by the network of their choice. Network operators have an important role in safeguarding users' data and privacy by properly deploying networks that strictly follow 3 GPP standards while ensuring that all efforts are made to protect their end users. A user's 'data' can have different definitions depending on the context. In one sense, 'data' means the packets that users send across the service, such as between websites, cloud services, or other users, as well as text messages and phone calls. In other definitions, 'data' may refer to metadata, which can include analytics around usage, conversations, location, personally identifiable data, connection and disconnections, IP addresses, hardware identifiers, etc. This paper focuses on how 5G networks handle users' metadata, specifically their identity, and efforts underway aiming to achieve a more anonymous user experience for users connected to public or private 5G infrastructure. Anonymous connections in public infrastructure have many real-world applications in healthcare and secure military and government operations. However, they also give rise to potential abuse by malicious parties or for unlawful activities. As such, a balanced approach is needed that both protects regular users and helps to enforce applicable laws to prevent unlawful activity. As the standards for 5G networks are region agnostic, they require adherence to local laws and regulations, meaning user identity protections could vary around the world.  
Basic concepts around secure and anonymous internet systems can be modeled after the Tor project [1]. Tor is a decentralized network of machines that route and encrypt user information while hiding the user's true identity. Tor users who interact with internet systems while connected to the Tor network can maintain an anonymous profile through the many mechanisms implemented to protect user identity and ensure their privacy. While the usage of Tor brings multiple ethical and political implications, it has been proven over time to be an effective mechanism for maintaining anonymity while connecting to online services [2].