SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING PRIVACY AND LIMITED EXPOSURE SERVICES FOR LOCATION BASED SERVICES

• US 20100009657A1
• Filed: 07/09/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NNG LLC
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: OLDS, David C., DINGLER, John R., TREVATHAN, Matthew B., RAMANATHAN, Sri, TERRY, Matthew A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,535 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

A system and method is provided for providing privacy and limited exposure services for location based services. The system includes at least one module configured to provide fictitious location or route information of a mobile user to selected users or group of users based on a mobile user provided profile.

Claims

1. A system comprising at least one module configured to provide fictitious location or route information of a mobile user to selected users or group of users based on a mobile user provided profile.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is further configured to allow mobile users to opt in or opt out of location based services while still providing actual location based information to selected requesting third parties.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is further configured to provide the fictitious location or route information of a mobile user to the selected users or group of users during mobile user selected time windows.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile user provided profile includes at least one of:

the selected users or group of users which receive the fictitious location or route information;

time windows to send the fictitious location or route information;

selected users or groups of user which receive actual location or route information; and

time windows to send the actual location or route information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile user provided profile is a look-up table provided on an infrastructure of a location based service (LBS).

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is at least one of maintained, deployed, created and supported on a computing infrastructure by a service provider.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to alert a mobile user when a third party requests location information.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one module is configured to receive permissions from the mobile user to one of send the fictitious location or route information to the third party and block actual location or route information to the third party.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to alter the fictitious route based on one of weather and traffic patterns.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is configured to receive a mobile device identifier or usename or other identifier of the mobile user to establish the mobile user as a unique user and to match the mobile user with the mobile user provided profile.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one module is a web service module that is configured to check to see if the mobile user authorized a third party to use a wireless device location tracking of the mobile user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one module is configured to receive a request from a third party to obtain actual location information of the mobile user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one module is configured to detect that the third party is one of the users or group of users which will be denied access to actual location information of the mobile user.

14. A method provided on software, hardware or a combination of software and hardware, comprising:

receiving a request by one or more users to obtain location information of a mobile device; and

sending fictitious location information or route information to the requesting one or more users based on a profile associated with the mobile device or user of the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the sending is provided during a mobile user time window.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising parsing a look-up table to determine whether the requesting one or more users is provided with permission to receive actual location or route information of the mobile device based on at least one of a time window and user defined rules.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the steps of claim 14 are offered by a service provider based on one of a fee and subscription basis

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the steps of claim 14 are provided on a computer infrastructure, which is at least one of supported, deployed, maintained, and created by a service provider.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

store one or more users or groups of users in which to provide fictitious location or route information;

store the fictitious location or route information; and

provide the fictitious location or route information during a time window to a requesting third party.

20. The computer program of claim 19, wherein the at least one component is operable to:

store one or more permitted users or groups of users in which to provide actual location or route information; and

provide the actual location or route information during a time window to the one or more permitted users or groups of users.

21. The computer program of claim 19, wherein the at least one component is maintained, created, supported or deployed by an LBS.

22. The computer program of claim 19, wherein the one or more users or groups of users, the fictitious location or route information and time windows are provided to an LBS which uses such information to parse prior to sending any requested information to a third party.

23. A method for deploying a location based service, comprising providing a computer infrastructure being operable to at least provide fictitious location or route information of a mobile user to selected users or group of users based on a mobile user provided profile.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the computer infrastructure is at least one of supported, deployed, maintained, and created by a service provider.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the fictitious location or route information of a mobile user and the selected users or group of users are provided to an LBS.