Searchable symmetric encryption with enhanced locality via balanced allocations

A method for searchable symmetric encryption. The method includes: accessing a computerized database that comprises keyword lists, each of the keyword lists comprising memory addresses of electronic documents that all contain a respective keyword; binning the memory addresses by performing balanced allocation of the memory addresses into ordered bins, such that at least some of the ordered bins each contains memory addresses of electronic documents that contain different keywords; encrypting each of the memory addresses with an encryption key that is derived from the keyword of the respective memory address; and storing the ordered bins at consecutive locations in a non-transient computer-readable memory, wherein the consecutive locations preserve the order of the ordered bins.