ILSSPP: Intelligent location sharing system with privacy preserving features for smart cities

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Gokay Saldamli ◽  
Richard Chow ◽  
Hongxia Jin
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
User Interaction ◽  
Privacy Preserving ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Location Sharing ◽  
Social Network Structure

Social networking services are increasingly accessed through mobile devices. This trend has prompted services such as Facebook and Google+to incorporate location as a de facto feature of user interaction. At the same time, services based on location such as Foursquare and Shopkick are also growing as smartphone market penetration increases. In fact, this growth is happening despite concerns (growing at a similar pace) about security and third-party use of private location information (e.g., for advertising). Nevertheless, service providers have been unwilling to build truly private systems in which they do not have access to location information. In this paper, we describe an architecture and a trial implementation of a privacy-preserving location sharing system called ILSSPP. The system protects location information from the service provider and yet enables fine grained location-sharing. One main feature of the system is to protect an individual’s social network structure. The pattern of location sharing preferences towards contacts can reveal this structure without any knowledge of the locations themselves. ILSSPP protects locations sharing preferences through protocol unification and masking. ILSSPP has been implemented as a standalone solution, but the technology can also be integrated into location-based services to enhance privacy.

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.

scholarly journals A Location Privacy Attack Based on the Location Sharing Mechanism with Erroneous Distance in Geosocial Networks

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tu-Liang Lin ◽  
Hong-Yi Chang ◽  
Sheng-Lin Li
Keyword(s):  
Location Privacy ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Dominating Set ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Distance Information ◽  
Space Partition ◽  
Location Sharing ◽  
True Location

Geographical social networks (GSN) is an emerging research area. For example, Foursquare, Yelp, and WeChat are all well-known service providers in this field. These applications are also known as location-based services (LBS). Previous studies have suggested that these location-based services may expose user location information. In order to ensure the privacy of the user’s location data, the service provider may provide corresponding protection mechanisms for its applications, including spatial cloaking, fuzzy location information, etc., so that the user’s real location cannot be easily cracked. It has been shown that if the positioning data provided by the user is not accurate enough, it is still difficult for an attacker to obtain the user’s true location. Taking this factor into consideration, our attack method is divided into two stages for the entire attack process: (1) Search stage: cover the area where the targeted user is located with unit discs, and then calculate the minimum dominating set. Use the triangle positioning method to find the minimum precision disc. (2) Inference phase: Considering the existence of errors, an Error-Adjusted Space Partition Attack Algorithm (EASPAA) was proposed during the inference phase. Improved the need for accurate distance information to be able to derive the user’s true location. In this study, we focus on the Location Sharing Mechanism with Maximal Coverage Limit to implement the whole attack. Experimental results show that the proposed method still can accurately infer the user’s real location even when there is an error in the user’s location information.

scholarly journals Location-sharing protocol for privacy protection in mobile online social networks

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ou Ruan ◽  
Lixiao Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Broadcast Encryption ◽  
Location Sharing ◽  
Identity Privacy ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Network Server

AbstractLocation-based services are becoming more and more popular in mobile online social networks (mOSNs) for smart cities, but users’ privacy also has aroused widespread concern, such as locations, friend sets and other private information. At present, many protocols have been proposed, but these protocols are inefficient and ignore some security risks. In the paper, we present a new location-sharing protocol, which solves two issues by using symmetric/asymmetric encryption properly. We adopt the following methods to reduce the communication and computation costs: only setting up one location server; connecting social network server and location server directly instead of through cellular towers; avoiding broadcast encryption. We introduce dummy identities to protect users’ identity privacy, and prevent location server from inferring users’ activity tracks by updating dummy identities in time. The details of security and performance analysis with related protocols show that our protocol enjoys two advantages: (1) it’s more efficient than related protocols, which greatly reduces the computation and communication costs; (2) it satisfies all security goals; however, most previous protocols only meet some security goals.

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.

Location-Based Services (LBS) in Micro-Scale Navigation

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suleiman Almasri ◽  
Muhammad Alnabhan ◽  
Ziad Hunaiti ◽  
Eliamani Sedoyeka
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Experimental Tests ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Battery Lifetime ◽  
Micro Scale ◽  
Multimedia Contents ◽  
Recent Developments

Pedestrians LBS are accessible by hand-held devices and become a large field of energetic research since the recent developments in wireless communication, mobile technologies and positioning techniques. LBS applications provide services like finding the neighboring facility within a certain area such as the closest restaurants, hospital, or public telephone. With the increased demand for richer mobile services, LBS propose a promising add-on to the current services offered by network operators and third-party service providers such as multimedia contents. The performance of LBS systems is directly affected by each component forming its architecture. Firstly, the end-user mobile device is still experiencing a lack of enough storage, limitations in CPU capabilities and short battery lifetime. Secondly, the mobile wireless network is still having problems with the size of bandwidth, packet loss, congestions and delay. Additionally, in spite of the fact that GPS is the most accurate navigation system, there are still some issues in micro scale navigation, mainly availability and accuracy. Finally, LBS server which hosts geographical and users information is experiencing difficulties in managing the huge size of data which causes a long query processing time. This paper presents a technical investigation and analysis of the performance of each component of LBS system for pedestrian navigation, through conducting several experimental tests in different locations. The results of this investigation have pinpointed the weaknesses of the system in micro-scale environments. In addition, this paper proposes a group of solutions and recommendations for most of these shortcomings.

scholarly journals Cache-Based Privacy Preserving Solution for Location and Content Protection in Location-Based Services

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 4651
Author(s):  
Yuanbo Cui ◽  
Fei Gao ◽  
Wenmin Li ◽  
Yijie Shi ◽  
Hua Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Location Privacy ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Privacy Preserving ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Content Protection ◽  
Query Privacy ◽  
Service Data

Location-Based Services (LBSs) are playing an increasingly important role in people’s daily activities nowadays. While enjoying the convenience provided by LBSs, users may lose privacy since they report their personal information to the untrusted LBS server. Although many approaches have been proposed to preserve users’ privacy, most of them just focus on the user’s location privacy, but do not consider the query privacy. Moreover, many existing approaches rely heavily on a trusted third-party (TTP) server, which may suffer from a single point of failure. To solve the problems above, in this paper we propose a Cache-Based Privacy-Preserving (CBPP) solution for users in LBSs. Different from the previous approaches, the proposed CBPP solution protects location privacy and query privacy simultaneously, while avoiding the problem of TTP server by having users collaborating with each other in a mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) environment. In the CBPP solution, each user keeps a buffer in his mobile device (e.g., smartphone) to record service data and acts as a micro TTP server. When a user needs LBSs, he sends a query to his neighbors first to seek for an answer. The user only contacts the LBS server when he cannot obtain the required service data from his neighbors. In this way, the user reduces the number of queries sent to the LBS server. We argue that the fewer queries are submitted to the LBS server, the less the user’s privacy is exposed. To users who have to send live queries to the LBS server, we employ the l-diversity, a powerful privacy protection definition that can guarantee the user’s privacy against attackers using background knowledge, to further protect their privacy. Evaluation results show that the proposed CBPP solution can effectively protect users’ location and query privacy with a lower communication cost and better quality of service.

Location-Based Services: A Road Towards Situation Awareness

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Filjar ◽  
Gordan Jezic ◽  
Maja Matijasevic
Keyword(s):  
Situation Awareness ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Evolutionary Information ◽  
Ip Multimedia Subsystem ◽  
Information Process

With the widespread use of mobile devices and increased demand for mobile services, Location-Based Services (LBS) represent a promising addition to service offerings of network operators as well as third-party service providers. Based on long-term research in LBS, our group has proposed a generic Enhanced LBS Reference Model (ELRM), which describes the concept, the architecture and the functionalities of the LBS. In addition, an evolutionary information process has been identified within the LBS, that represents knowledge maturity from position awareness to situation awareness. Both the ELRM and the information evolution process in LBS are presented in this article and illustrated by a case study within the framework of the 3GPP-standardised IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). This case-study emphasises the opportunities for navigation- and LBS-related solutions development provided by modern telecommunication technologies.

scholarly journals A Privacy-Preserving Attribute-Based Encryption System for Data Sharing in Smart Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Xieyang Shen ◽  
Chuanhe Huang ◽  
Danxin Wang ◽  
Jiaoli Shi
Keyword(s):  
Data Sharing ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Information Leakage ◽  
Cloud Service ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Smart Devices ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Data Access Control ◽  
High Level

Information leakage and efficiency are the two main concerns of data sharing in cloud-aided IoT. The main problem is that smart devices cannot afford both energy and computation costs and tend to outsource data to a cloud server. Furthermore, most schemes focus on preserving the data stored in the cloud but omitting the access policy is typically stored in unencrypted form. In this paper, we proposed a fine-grained data access control scheme based on CP-ABE to implement access policies with a greater degree of expressiveness as well as hidden policies from curious cloud service providers. Moreover, to mitigate the extra computation cost generated by complex policies, an outsourcing service for decryption can be used by data users. Further experiments and extensive analysis show that we significantly decrease the communication and computation overhead while providing a high-level security scheme compared with the existing schemes.

Memorizing Algorithm

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quynh Chi Truong ◽  
Anh Tuan Truong ◽  
Tran Khanh Dang
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Adaptive Grid ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Location Data ◽  
Spatial Grid ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

The rapid development of location-based services, which make use of the location information of the user, presents both opportunities and challenges. Users can benefit from these services; however, they must often disclose their location information, which may lead to privacy problems. In this regard, the authors propose a solution with a memorizing algorithm, using trusted middleware that organizes space in an adaptive grid where it cloaks the user’s location information in an anonymization area before sending it to the service providers. This newly introduced memorizing algorithm calculates on the spatial grid to decrease the overlapped areas as much as possible, which helps conceal users’ locations. This solution protects the user’s privacy while using the service, but also against data mining techniques with respect to their history location data. Experimental results with a user activities map establishes this theoretical analyses as well as the practical value of the proposed solution.

Memorizing Algorithm

Cyber Crime ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 600-617
Author(s):  
Quynh Chi Truong ◽  
Anh Tuan Truong ◽  
Tran Khanh Dang
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Adaptive Grid ◽  
Location Based Services ◽  
Location Information ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Location Data ◽  
Spatial Grid ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

The rapid development of location-based services, which make use of the location information of the user, presents both opportunities and challenges. Users can benefit from these services; however, they must often disclose their location information, which may lead to privacy problems. In this regard, the authors propose a solution with a memorizing algorithm, using trusted middleware that organizes space in an adaptive grid where it cloaks the user’s location information in an anonymization area before sending it to the service providers. This newly introduced memorizing algorithm calculates on the spatial grid to decrease the overlapped areas as much as possible, which helps conceal users’ locations. This solution protects the user’s privacy while using the service, but also against data mining techniques with respect to their history location data. Experimental results with a user activities map establishes this theoretical analyses as well as the practical value of the proposed solution.

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