Privacy Challenges for Location Aware Technologies

2004

Abstract Location awareness, the ability to determine geographical position, is an emerging technology with both significant benefits and important privacy implications for users of mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs. Location is determined either internally by a device or externally by systems and networks with which the device interacts, and the resultant location information may be stored, used, and disclosed under various conditions that are described.

Dynamic & mobile GIS: investigating change …, 2006

The field of ubiquitous computing envisages an era when the average consumer owns hundreds or thousands of mobile and embedded computing devices. These devices will perform action based on the context of their users, and therefore ubiquitous system will gather, collate and distribute much more personal information about individuals then computers do today. Location information is a particularly useful form of context in ubiquitous computing, yet its unconditional distribution can be very invasive. This dissertation takes a different approach and argues that many location-aware applications can be function with anonymised location data and that, where this is possible, its use is preferable to that of access control.

2008

Abstract The topic addressed in this thesis concerns the relationship between spatial knowledge and information protection in a mobile setting. The proliferation of mobile devices in an increasingly connected world raises growing concern for information security and privacy. For example, sensitive data recorded in corporate and networked information systems can be accessed from uncontrolled locations, downloaded on mobile terminals and disclosed to unauthorized third parties.

IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine, 2004

2006

Location-based services (LBS) rely on knowledge of a user's location to provide tailored services or information by means of a wireless device. LBS applications have wide-ranging implications for society, particularly in the context of tracking and monitoring groups of individuals such as children, invalids, and parolees. Despite a great deal of attention paid to technical and commercial aspects of LBS technologies, consideration of the legal, ethical, social and technology momentum issues involved has been wanting. This paper examines some of the more pressing issues that are expected to arise from the widespread use of LBS. The outcome of this paper is the development of an LBS privacy-security dichotomy. The dichotomy demonstrates the importance of striking a balance between the privacy of the individual and national security as a whole. It also presents a realized framework for reasoning about potentially problematic issues in LBS applications.

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...

IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2003

Proc. Interact, 2003

Context -aware computing often involves tracking peoples' location. Many studies and applications highlight the importance of keeping people's location information private. We discuss two types of locationbased services; location-tracking services that are based on other parties tracking the user's location and position-aware services that rely on the device's knowledge of its own location. We present an experimental case study that examines people's concern for location privacy and compare this to the use of location-based services. We find that even though the perceived usefulness of the two different types of services is the same, locationtracking services generate more concern for privacy than posit ion-aware services. We conclude that development emphasis should be given to position-aware services but that location-tracking services have a potential for success if users are given a simple option for turning the location-tracking off.

Location-Based Services Handbook, 2018

Location-based services also raise the spectre of state surveillance of individual activity-either concurrent with an individual's movements (tracking), or retrospectively, through searching records of individual patterns of movement. 3 These are just some of the contexts in which privacy issues are raised. In this paper we begin by describing location-based services, their evolution and their future directions. We then outline privacy issues raised by such services. In Part III we consider how current Canadian data protection laws apply to location-based services, and indicate where such laws fall short of addressing the full range of issues raised by location-based services. Part IV of the paper explores some technological methods to address the privacy challenges raised by locationbased services. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations. I. LOCATION-BASED SERVICES Location-based services are proliferating largely due to the dramatic rise in the number of GPS-equipped mobile devices used by consumers. Such devices include smart phones, tablet computers and hand held Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Newer versions of internet browsers are also "location aware", facilitating the use of location information in tailoring the user's web experience. 4 Location-based services are premised on the sharing of a user's location information with a set of specified individuals within their circle of family, friends or associates. Services such as Google Latitude, 5 Glympse, 6 Foursquare 7 or Gowalla, 8 enable this kind of location sharing. Location-sharing can also have a non-consensual dimension. For example, it can be used by employers to track the location of their employees, 9 or handset vendors, operating system vendors, advertisers, advertising networks, and analytics companies may also have access to precise, sensitive information about where users are located".