Privacy-enhanced location services

2007

In today pervasive environments, access to location information is achieved through a variety of sensor technologies, which recently enjoyed a relevant boost in terms of precision and reliability, and through the widespread diffusion of mobile communication devices. Location information is therefore

2009

Abstract Recent advances in positioning techniques, small devices, GIS-based services, and ubiquitous connectivity, have enabled a large variety of location-based services able to tailor services according to the location of the individual requiring the service. Location information, however, if on one side is critical for providing customized services, on the other hand, if misused, can lead to privacy breaches.

Telematics and Informatics, 2006

Recent achievements in the positioning technology enable the provision of location-based services that require high accuracy. On the other hand, location privacy is important, since position information is considered as personal information. Thus, anonymity and location privacy in mobile and pervasive environments has been receiving increasing attention during the last few years, and several mechanisms and architectures have been proposed to prevent ''big brother'' phenomena. In this paper, we discuss an architecture to shield the location of a mobile user and preserve the anonymity on the service delivery. This architecture relies on un-trusted entities to distribute segments of anonymous location information, and authorizes other entities to combine these portions and derive the actual location of a user. The paper describes how the proposed architecture takes into account the location privacy requirements, and how it is used by the end usersÕ devices, e.g., mobile phones, for the dissemination of location information to Service Providers. Furthermore, it discusses performance study experiments, based on real location data, and summarizes the threats analysis results.

KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems

Location-based services (LBSs) have become popular in recent years due to the ever-increasing usage of smart mobile devices and mobile applications through networks. Although LBS application provides great benefits to mobile users, it also raises a sever privacy concern of users due to the untrusted service providers. In the lack of privacy enhancing mechanisms, most applications of the LBS may discourage the user's acceptance of location services in general, and endanger the user's privacy in particular. Therefore, it is a great interest to discuss on the recent privacy-preserving mechanisms in LBSs. Many existing location-privacy protection-mechanisms (LPPMs) make great efforts to increase the attacker's uncertainty on the user's actual whereabouts by generating a multiple of fake-locations together with user's actual positions. In this survey, we present a study and analysis of existing LPPMs and the state-of-art privacy measures in service quality aware LBS applications. We first study the general architecture of privacy qualification system for LBSs by surveying the existing framework and outlining its main feature components. We then give an overview of the basic privacy requirements to be considered in the design and evaluation of LPPMs. Furthermore, we discuss the classification and countermeasure solutions of existing LPPMs for mitigating the current LBS privacy protection challenges. These classifications include anonymization, obfuscation, and an encryption-based technique, as well as the combination of them is called a hybrid mechanism. Finally, we discuss several open issues and research challenges based on the latest progresses for ongoing LBS and location privacy research.

ingeniería y desarrollo, 2014

Location services have become popular over the last years due to the global adoption of smartphones and the worldwide availability of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other positioning methods. Locationbased services (LBSs) offer relevant information to users based on their location. Some common applications of LBSs are traffic or public transportation information, search of points of interest (restaurants, stores, etc.), navigation, among others. Despite all the desirable features that these services provide, most of them do not provide adequate protection of the geographical location of the users, putting them at risk if their information falls in wrong hands. This paper presents a compendium of techniques to protect the location privacy of the users, and introduces an approach to compare and evaluate the presented mechanisms and their viability to be used in different kinds of LBSs.

Global journal of computer science and technology, 2019

Recent advancements in technology have opened new avenues for services like the Location based services. Location based services are applications of mobile technology that utilize the information about the location of the user. It uses the Global Positioning System GPS to acquire and transmit user location. Billions of people create an unprecedented amount of data that either includes or allows the inference of highly sensitive information amidst which user location is one of them. However, this information is shared with third party without the knowledge or consent of the user. This is a violation of privacy as some users will or may not want to disclose their location to some people. This paper aims to raise awareness about privacy issues created as a result of location based services. History of location based services were discussed, information privacy and privacy issue surrounding the location based service were also discussed. Despite the myriad opportunities location based s...

2013

The concern for location privacy in mobile applications is commonly motivated by a scenario in which a mobile device communicates personal location data, i.e. the device holder location, to a third party e.g. LBS provider, in exchange for some information service. We argue that this scenario offers a partial view of the actual risks for privacy, because in reality the information flow can be more complex. For example, more and more often location is computed by a third party, the location provider, e.g. Google Location Service. Location providers are in the position of collecting huge amounts of location data from the users of diverse applications (e.g. Facebook and Foursquare to cite a few). This raises novel privacy concerns. In this paper, we discuss two issues related to the protection from location providers. The first focuses on the compliance of emerging location services standards with European data protection norms; the latter focuses on hard privacy solutions protecting from untrusted location providers.

Transactions on Data Privacy, 2009

With the growth of wireless and mobile technologies, we are witnessing an increase in location-based services (LBSs). Although LBSs provide enhanced functionalities, they open up new vulnerabilities that can be exploited to cause security and privacy breaches. Consequently, location data of individuals used by such services must be adequately protected. Such services will require new models for expressing privacy preferences for location data and mechanisms for enforcing them. We identify the factors on which location privacy depends and propose models for expressing privacy that can be used by LBSs. We discuss the architecture of a system that allows one to specify and enforce location privacy and that can be easily integrated with existing systems providing LBSs. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by developing a prototype.

Dynamic & mobile GIS: investigating change …, 2006

2013

The concern for location privacy in mobile applications is commonly motivated by a scenario in which a mobile device communicates personal location data, i.e. the device holder location, to a third party e.g. LBS provider, in exchange for some information service. We argue that this scenario offers a partial view of the actual risks for privacy, because in reality the information flow can be more complex. For example, more and more often location is computed by a third party, the location provider, e.g. Google Location Service. Location providers are in the position of collecting huge amounts of location data from the users of diverse applications (e.g. Facebook and Foursquare to cite a few). This raises novel privacy concerns. In this paper, we discuss two issues related to the protection from location providers. The first focuses on the compliance of emerging location services standards with European data protection norms; the latter focuses on hard privacy solutions protecting from untrusted location providers.