Privacy issues in location-aware mobile devices (original) (raw)

Privacy in Location based Systems

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...

Privacy Challenges for Location Aware Technologies

Location aware capabilities can supply context and location sensitive information and support enabling users to be contactable and locatable within a wider mobile environment. These location awareness attributes can also be used to monitor user activities and movement through space and time. This paper explores location aware technologies and the resulting changing privacy and security landscapes for such mobile systems. The paper argues that the real challenge of meeting privacy obligations will be how to limit the joining-up or collaboration between the different monitoring technologies. However, this joining up capability is the very nature of information systems.

Location-Based Services and Privacy

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".

Access control and privacy in location-aware applications

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.

Location-based services for mobile telephony: a study of users' privacy concerns

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 privacy in ubiquitous computing

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.

Location privacy models in mobile applications: conceptual view and research directions

GeoInformatica, 2014

Location privacy in mobile, location-aware applications is a prominent research topic spanning across different disciplines and with strong societal implications and expectations. The tumultuous growth of the mobile applications market over the past few years has however hindered the development of a systematic organization and classification of location privacy concepts. In this paper we focus on one of the key concepts, i.e. location privacy metric. We survey existing approaches to the measurement of location privacy and propose a classification framework. The notion of location privacy metric, however, cannot be fully understood without describing the context in which these metrics are used. To that extent we elaborate on the notions of application model and privacy model. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the specification of a conceptual framework for location privacy.

Applying privacy on the dissemination of location information

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.

Privacy issues in location-aware browsing

Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSPATIAL …, 2010

Advances in positioning services and their pervasiveness, e.g., wi-fi based location services, pave the way to the development of innovative LBSs and architectures. In this paper we focus on location-aware browsing, a framework which enables websites to acquire the position of website users. In particular we discuss privacy issues related to the recent W3C proposal for a geolocation API standard. Such specification prescribes that users must give explicit consent to the disclosure of position information to websites. In this paper we argue that stronger and more flexible protection is needed: a) users should be provided with the capability of disclosing coarse regions in place of point coordinates in order to limit the disclosure of personal location data; b) location information should be protected not only against websites but also against location service providers. We discuss a possible approach to address those requirements under the assumption that the position is computed by a wi-fi based positioning service. Finally, we broaden the discussion to include a complementary legal viewpoint.