Privacy-Enhanced Location Services Information
Marco Cremonini Claudio A. Ardagna · Auerbach Publications eBooks · 2007
Contents 15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 15.2 Basic Concepts and Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 15.2.1 Positioning Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 15.2.2 Location-Based Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 15.3 Location Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 15.4 Techniques for Location Privacy Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 15.4.1 Anonymity-Based Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 15.4.2 Obfuscation-Based Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 15.4.3 Policy-Based Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 15.5 Conclusions and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 15.1 Introduction 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 becoming easily available and can be processed to provide services for business, social, or informational purposes [1]. In particular, location information allows the development of a new category of applications, generally called location-based services (LBSs), which use the physical position of individuals to offer additional services. For instance, customer-oriented applications, social networks, and monitoring services can be greatly enriched with data describing where people are, how they are moving, or whether they are close to specific locations. Several commercial and enterprise-oriented LBSs are already offered and have gained popularity [2,3]. However, despite the tremendous success of mobile computing, as witnessed by the exponential growth of advanced mobile devices like smart phones and handheld computers, location-based computing also brings a number of privacy concerns. It is not a surprise that personal privacy, which is already the center of many concerns for the risks brought by current online services [2,4], is considered seriously threatened by LBSs. Such concerns call for more sophisticated solutions for preserving the privacy of users when dealing with location information.