Method and apparatus for managing the privacy and disclosure of location information

• US 20050060575A1
• Filed: 09/15/2003
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Agnihotri, Manoj B., Hoekstra, Matthew E., Gadamsetty, Uma M., Keskar, Dhananjay V., Trethewey, James R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,729 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]

Abstract

An approach for managing the privacy and disclosure of location information associated with a computer system. For one aspect, a request is received from a requestor for a location property associated with a location of a computer system. It is then determined whether a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified. If not, a user may be prompted to supply privacy preferences associated with the requester. The privacy preferences are then applied to determine whether or not to provide the requested information. A user setting, such as a basic input-output system memory location setting, may also be implemented to enable and/or disable location-aware computing.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a requester for a location property associated with a location of a computer system; and

determining whether a privacy preference associated with the requester has been specified.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

if a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified,

applying the specified preference to determine whether to provide the location property to the requester.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

preventing the location property from being provided to the requestor if the privacy preference specifies that the location property is to be kept private, and

providing the location property to the requestor if the privacy preference specifies that the location property is to be disclosed to the requester.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

if a privacy preference associated with the requestor has not been specified,

requesting a privacy preference associated with the requester from the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein requesting includes providing a pop-up dialog box.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein providing a pop-up dialog box includes enabling a user to selectively enable and disable privacy for individual location properties.

7. A method comprising:

enabling a user to selectively enable and disable location-aware computing; and

preventing a location property from being provided to a requestor if the user has disabled location-aware computing.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein enabling the user to selectively enable and disable location-aware computing includes

providing an option during basic input/output system configuration to enable and disable location-aware computing.

9. The method of claim 7 further including

setting a location privacy setting bit in response to the user selectively enabling or disabling location-aware computing.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein setting the location privacy setting bit includes setting a bit in BIOS memory.

11. The method of claim 9 further including

receiving a request for the location property from the requester, and

querying the location privacy setting bit to determine whether location-aware computing is enabled or disabled.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein setting and querying are performed using Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)-based techniques.

13. A machine-accessible medium storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

in response to receiving a request from a requestor for a location property, determine whether a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified; and

if a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified, applying the privacy preference to determine whether to provide or withhold the location property.

14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13 further storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

if a privacy preference associated with the requester has not been specified, request that the privacy preference be specified.

15. The machine-accessible medium of claim 14 further storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

provide a pop-up dialog box to request the privacy preference.

16. The machine-accessible medium of claim 13 further storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

determine whether the machine is enabled for location-aware computing.

17. The machine-accessible medium of claim 16 further storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

if the machine is not enabled for location-aware computing, preventing the machine from providing the requested location property regardless of whether the privacy preference has been specified and, if specified, regardless of the contents of the privacy preference.

18. A method comprising:

in response to receiving a request for a location property from a requestor, determining whether a computer system is enabled for location-aware computing;

if the computer is enabled for location-aware computing, determining whether a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified;

if the privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified, applying the privacy preference to determine whether to provide the location property; and

if the privacy preference associated with the requestor has not been specified, requesting the privacy preference associated with the requestor.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein requesting the privacy preference comprises providing a pop-up dialog box.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein determining whether a computer system is enabled for location-aware computing comprises determining a value stored in a location privacy setting in basic input/output system (BIOS) memory.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

enabling a user to enable and disable location-aware computing through a BIOS configuration routine.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

using WMI/ACPI instrumentation techniques to set and determine the value stored in the location privacy setting.

23. A system comprising:

a bus to communicate information;

a processor coupled to the bus;

a memory coupled to the bus to store information;

an antenna coupled to the bus to receive a signal to indicate a location of the system; and

a machine-accessible storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to;

in response to receiving a request for a location property associated with the system from a requester, determine whether a privacy preference associated with the requestor has been specified; and

if a privacy preference has been specified, apply the privacy preference to determine whether to provide the requested location property.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the machine-accessible storage medium further stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to determine whether the system is enabled for location-aware computing.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the memory includes a basic input/output system (BIOS) memory and wherein determining whether the system is enabled for location-aware computing includes determining a value stored in a location in the BIOS memory.

26. The system of claim 23 further storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to request the privacy preference associated with the requester if it is determined that the privacy preference associated with the requestor has not been specified.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein requesting the privacy preference includes providing a pop-up dialog box.

28. The system of claim 23 wherein the requester is one of a client application and a location-based service.