scholarly journals Privacy perception in location-based services for mobile devices in the university community of the north coast of Colombia

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita Gamarra ◽  
Inés Meriño Fuentes ◽  
Juan Calabria Sarmiento ◽  
Omar Gutierrez Acosta ◽  
Mauricio Barrios Barrios ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Location Privacy ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Privacy Management ◽  
The North ◽  
The University ◽  
University Community

Introduction: The use of mobile applications has increased in the last years. Most of them require the knowledge of the user location, either for their core service or for marketing purposes. Location-based services (LBS) offer context-based assistance to users based on their location. Although these applications ask the user for permission to use their location and even explain in detail how this information will be used in its terms and conditions, most users are not aware or even interested in the fact that their location information is stored in databases and monetized by selling it to third-party companies. Regarding this situation, we developed a study with the aim to assess perception, concerns and awareness from users about their location information. Methods: This work is based on an exploratory survey applied to the university community, mainly from the North Coast of Colombia, to measure the perception of location privacy of users with mobile devices. The questionnaire was applied using Google Forms. The survey has nineteen questions organized in three sections: personal information, identification of privacy and privacy management. These questions were designed to know the users’ perceptions of privacy concerns in LBS and any actions they take to preserve it. Results: The results show that, in general, the respondents do not have a real concern regarding the privacy of their geolocation data, and the majority is not willing to pay to protect their privacy. Conclusions: This type of surveys can generate awareness among participants about the use of their private information. The results expose in this paper can be used to create government policies and regulations by technology companies about the privacy management.

scholarly journals Privacy vs. Reward in Indoor Location-Based Services

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (4) ◽  
pp. 102-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kassem Fawaz ◽  
Kyu-Han Kim ◽  
Kang G. Shin
Keyword(s):  
Location Privacy ◽  
Indoor Localization ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Indoor Location ◽  
Location Data ◽  
Personalized Services ◽  
Privacy Risks

AbstractWith the advance of indoor localization technology, indoor location-based services (ILBS) are gaining popularity. They, however, accompany privacy concerns. ILBS providers track the users’ mobility to learn more about their behavior, and then provide them with improved and personalized services. Our survey of 200 individuals highlighted their concerns about this tracking for potential leakage of their personal/private traits, but also showed their willingness to accept reduced tracking for improved service. In this paper, we propose PR-LBS (Privacy vs. Reward for Location-Based Service), a system that addresses these seemingly conflicting requirements by balancing the users’ privacy concerns and the benefits of sharing location information in indoor location tracking environments. PR-LBS relies on a novel location-privacy criterion to quantify the privacy risks pertaining to sharing indoor location information. It also employs a repeated play model to ensure that the received service is proportionate to the privacy risk. We implement and evaluate PR-LBS extensively with various real-world user mobility traces. Results show that PR-LBS has low overhead, protects the users’ privacy, and makes a good tradeoff between the quality of service for the users and the utility of shared location data for service providers.

scholarly journals Enabling Location Privacy Preservation in MANETs Based on Distance, Angle, and Spatial Cloaking

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Nanlan Jiang ◽  
Sai Yang ◽  
Pingping Xu
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Preservation ◽  
Location Privacy ◽  
Differential Privacy ◽  
Geographic Routing ◽  
Base Station ◽  
Wireless Channel ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Communication Overhead ◽  
Spatial Cloaking

Preserving the location privacy of users in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) is a significant challenge for location information. Most of the conventional Location Privacy Preservation (LPP) methods protect the privacy of the user while sacrificing the capability of retrieval on the server-side, that is, legitimate devices except the user itself cannot retrieve the location in most cases. On the other hand, applications such as geographic routing and location verification require the retrievability of locations on the access point, the base station, or a trusted server. Besides, with the development of networking technology such as caching technology, it is expected that more and more distributed location-based services will be deployed, which results in the risk of leaking location information in the wireless channel. Therefore, preserving location privacy in wireless channels without losing the retrievability of the real location is essential. In this paper, by focusing on the wireless channel, we propose a novel LPP enabled by distance (ranging result), angle, and the idea of spatial cloaking (DSC-LPP) to preserve location privacy in MANETs. DSC-LPP runs without the trusted third party nor the traditional cryptography tools in the line-of-sight environment, and it is suitable for MANETs such as the Internet of Things, even when the communication and computation capabilities of users are limited. Qualitative evaluation indicates that DSC-LPP can reduce the communication overhead when compared with k-anonymity, and the computation overhead of DSC-LPP is limited when compared with conventional cryptography. Meanwhile, the retrievability of DSC-LPP is higher than that of k-anonymity and differential privacy. Simulation results show that with the proper design of spatial divisions and parameters, other legitimate devices in a MANET can correctly retrieve the location of users with a high probability when adopting DSC-LPP.

scholarly journals An Efficient and Privacy-Preserving Multiuser Cloud-Based LBS Query Scheme

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Ou ◽  
Hui Yin ◽  
Zheng Qin ◽  
Sheng Xiao ◽  
Guangyi Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Location Privacy ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Privacy Preserving ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Location Information ◽  
User Privacy ◽  
User Revocation ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Cloud Infrastructures

Location-based services (LBSs) are increasingly popular in today’s society. People reveal their location information to LBS providers to obtain personalized services such as map directions, restaurant recommendations, and taxi reservations. Usually, LBS providers offer user privacy protection statement to assure users that their private location information would not be given away. However, many LBSs run on third-party cloud infrastructures. It is challenging to guarantee user location privacy against curious cloud operators while still permitting users to query their own location information data. In this paper, we propose an efficient privacy-preserving cloud-based LBS query scheme for the multiuser setting. We encrypt LBS data and LBS queries with a hybrid encryption mechanism, which can efficiently implement privacy-preserving search over encrypted LBS data and is very suitable for the multiuser setting with secure and effective user enrollment and user revocation. This paper contains security analysis and performance experiments to demonstrate the privacy-preserving properties and efficiency of our proposed scheme.

On the Use of Optimal Stopping Theory for Secret Sharing Scheme Update

2013 ◽  
pp. 276-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos Delakouridis ◽  
Leonidas Kazatzopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Secret Sharing ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Location Privacy ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Cloud Infrastructure ◽  
Location Update ◽  
Location Services ◽  
Optimal Thresholds ◽  
Cryptographic Techniques

The location privacy issue has been addressed thoroughly so far. Cryptographic techniques, k-anonymity-based approaches, spatial obfuscation methods, mix-zones, pseudonyms, and dummy location signals have been proposed to enhance location privacy. In this chapter, the authors propose an approach, called STS (Share The Secret) that segments and distributes the location information to various, non-trusted, entities from where it will be reachable by authenticated location services. This secret sharing approach prevents location information disclosure even in situation where there is a direct observation of the target. The proposed approach facilitates end-users or location-based services to classify flexible privacy levels for different contexts of operation. The authors provide the optimal thresholds to alter the privacy policy levels when there is a need for relaxing or strengthening the required privacy. Additionally, they discuss the robustness of the proposed approach against various adversary models. Finally, the authors evaluate the approach in terms of computational and energy efficiency, using real mobile applications and location update scenarios over a cloud infrastructure, which is used to support storage and computational tasks.

Location Information Management in LBS Applications

2011 ◽  
pp. 2450-2455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anselmo Cardoso de Paiva ◽  
Erich Farias Monteiro ◽  
Jocielma Jerusa Leal Rocha ◽  
Claudio de Souza Baptista ◽  
Aristófanes Corrêa Silva
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Positional Information ◽  
Market Potential ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Application Developers ◽  
Services Effectiveness ◽  
Climatic Information

The mobile computing advent brings a set of new applications that benefit from the constant need of information, diminishing communication costs and favoring the popularization of mobile devices, to reach an increasing number of users. The mobility characteristic opens a new area for software applications. Associated to the mobility we have the location identification, which turns into a critical attribute, once it allows the development of a great variety of new services and applications. The systems that benefit from the use of that location information are named locationbased systems (LBS); alternatively, these applications are also known as location-aware, context-aware, or adaptive information systems More precisely, we can define LBS as applications that use the location information to supply services, based on this position context, to their users (Kupper, 2005; Schiller & Voisard, 2004). The user location information makes available completely new and innovative service concepts, offering information to the user based on its own context (e.g., climatic information in the region where the user is located), increasing considerably the utility of these services. We know that location- based applications increase the services effectiveness, as they give a customized access to the data based on the user’s preferences and on its actual position. This enhances the personalization content, giving several benefits to users and to the application developers. In our daily life, several activities may use these services, like the emergency call centers, the car navigation services, and even location-based friend finder. We may verify that, beyond the already cited characteristics and benefits, what also gave the LBS applications a growing perspective were the location techniques modernization and the mobile devices popularization, enabling the offer of more precise, objective, and useful information. In Shiode et al. (Shiode, Li, Batty, Longley, & Maguire, 2002), research shows the trend of LBS market and the market potential reserved to this class of applications that, each year, turns out to be more important to the users, becoming the area that dominates the applications for mobile devices. According to Sayed (2005), the forecast annual revenues for location-based services was estimated in US $3.3 billions for United States in 2006/2007, and in US $11.7 billions on the other countries. In summary, we may say that the positional information has the potential to explore the user’s geographical context as one of the most important variables for content and services personalization for mobile devices users.

scholarly journals The University of Gondar, Queen’s University and Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program: A partnership for disability-inclusive higher education in Ethiopia

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M Aldersey ◽  
Mikyas Abera ◽  
Anushka Mzinganjira ◽  
Solomon Abebe ◽  
Solomon Demissie
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The North ◽  
Community Based Rehabilitation ◽  
Queen's University ◽  
Project Objectives ◽  
The University ◽  
University Community

This article describes the development and implementation process of an innovative 10-year partnership that draws on the strengths of existing community-based rehabilitation programs to support new education and leadership development activities in Ethiopia. Current global estimates indicate that over 17 million people may be affected by disability in Ethiopia. The national population projection for 2017 indicates that approximately 80 per cent of the population resides in underserved rural areas, with limited to no access to necessary health, rehabilitation, or social services. The University of Gondar (UoG) in Ethiopia has been serving people with disabilities in and around the North Gondar Zone since its inception in the mid-1950s. Over the years, its various units have designed and implemented numerous projects, employing alternative institutional and community-based models to promote the wellbeing of people with disabilities. Lessons drawn from these initiatives and shifts in health and social work practice informed UoG’s decision to establish its Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program in 2005. Given a shared commitment to the principles and practice of CBR, the UoG is presently collaborating with the International Centre for the Advancement of Community Based Rehabilitation (ICACBR) at Queen’s University in Canada to create new disability-related education and mentorship opportunities. These include community-based research and internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate scholars through a shared Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program. The two institutions, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, have an overall goal of creating a disability-inclusive campus and regional rehabilitation hub at UoG. In this article, the authors discuss the unique collaborative structure of project management and implementation, and the embeddedness of university-community engagement to meet project objectives informed by the North–South/South–North partnership models. They also provide critical insights to, and reflections on, the challenges inherent in international, interdisciplinary university-community collaboration and the benefits from enhancing higher education in both Ethiopia and Canada. In contrast to shorter term or smaller projects that rely heavily on individual champions, this article focuses on larger scale, process-oriented institutional learning.

scholarly journals Location Privacy Leakage through Sensory Data

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Liang ◽  
Zhipeng Cai ◽  
Qilong Han ◽  
Yingshu Li
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Dynamic Time Warping ◽  
Location Privacy ◽  
Embedded Sensors ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Time Warping ◽  
Sensory Data ◽  
Privacy Leakage ◽  
Bounded Area ◽  
Dynamic Time

Mobile devices bring benefits as well as the risk of exposing users’ location information, as some embedded sensors can be accessed without users’ permission and awareness. In this paper, we show that, only by using the data collected from the embedded sensors in mobile devices instead of GPS data, we can infer a user’s location information with high accuracy. Three issues are addressed which are route identification, user localization in a specific route, and user localization in a bounded area. The Dynamic Time Warping based technique is designed and we develop a Hidden Markov Model to solve the localization problem. Real experiments are performed to evaluate our proposed methods.

scholarly journals Differential Privacy Location Protection Scheme Based on Hilbert Curve

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jie Wang ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
Hongtao Li
Keyword(s):  
Privacy Protection ◽  
Location Privacy ◽  
Differential Privacy ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Hilbert Curve ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Protection Scheme

Location-based services (LBS) applications provide convenience for people’s life and work, but the collection of location information may expose users’ privacy. Since these collected data contain much private information about users, a privacy protection scheme for location information is an impending need. In this paper, a protection scheme DPL-Hc is proposed. Firstly, the users’ location on the map is mapped into one-dimensional space by using Hilbert curve mapping technology. Then, the Laplace noise is added to the location information of one-dimensional space for perturbation, which considers more than 70% of the nonlocation information of users; meanwhile, the disturbance effect is achieved by adding noise. Finally, the disturbed location is submitted to the service provider as the users’ real location to protect the users’ location privacy. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme can protect the users’ location privacy without the trusted third party effectively. It has advantages in data availability, the degree of privacy protection, and the generation time of anonymous data sets, basically achieving the balance between privacy protection and service quality.

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