Location-based privacy

• US 9,436,180 B1
• Filed: 04/11/2014
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fredinburg, Daniel, Kemler, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Amin, Bhavesh V
• Application Number:
  US14/250,752
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to anonymizing user identity from nearby vehicles, such as autonomous vehicles, that may be gathering sensor data. In one aspect, one or more computing devices of an autonomous vehicle may receive location information identifying a geographic location. Further, the one or more computing devices may receive sensor data captured by one or more sensors of the vehicle and determine whether any of the sensor data is within a threshold distance from the geographic location. Based on the determination, the one or more computing devices may filter the sensor data that is within the threshold distance and send the filtered sensor data to one or more server computing devices for further processing.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving from one or more remote server computing devices, by one or more computing devices of a vehicle, location information identifying a geographic location of a client computing device of a user without identifying the user;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices of the vehicle, sensor data captured by one or more sensors of the vehicle;

using, by the one or more computing devices of the vehicle, the sensor data to maneuver the vehicle in an autonomous driving mode;

identifying, by the one or more computing devices of the vehicle, a portion of the sensor data that was captured within a threshold radial distance of the geographic location of the client computing device of the user;

after using the sensor data, filtering, by the one or more computing devices of the vehicle, the sensor data to remove the portion of the sensor data that was captured within the threshold radial distance; and

sending the filtered sensor data to the one or more remote server computing devices for further processing.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, not storing the portion of the sensor data that was captured within the threshold radial distance in persistent storage of the one or more computing devices of the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data includes a plurality of images, and filtering the sensor data includes discarding at least one of the plurality of images that was captured within the threshold radial distance from the geographic location.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location is received by the one or more computing devices of the vehicle as GPS location data.

4. A system comprising:

memory;

one or more computing devices, each of the one or more computing devices having one or more processors, the one or more computing devices being coupled to the memory;

wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to;

receive from one or more remote server computing devices location information identifying a geographic location of a client computing device of a user without identifying the user;

receive sensor data captured by one or more sensors of a vehicle;

use the sensor data to maneuver the vehicle in an autonomous driving mode;

identify a portion of the sensor data that was captured within a threshold radial distance from the geographic location of the client computing device of the user;

after using the sensor data, filter the sensor data to remove the portion of the sensor data that was captured within the threshold radial distance; and

send the filtered sensor data to the one or more remote server computing devices for further processing.

5. The system of claim 4, further configured to not store the portion of the sensor data that was captured within the threshold radial distance in persistent storage of the memory.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the sensor data includes a plurality of images, and filtering the sensor data includes discarding at least one of the plurality of images that was captured within the threshold radial distance from the geographic location.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising the vehicle.

17. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to receive the geographic location data as GPS location data.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices of a server computing device, a cloaking request from a client computing device of a user, the cloaking request identifying a geographic location of the client computing device;

scrubbing, by the one or more computing devices of the server computing device, the geographic location to remove any identification information related to the user;

after scrubbing, sending, by the one or more computing devices of the server computing device, instructions to a remote vehicle to filter sensor data captured by the vehicle'"'"'s sensors in order to remove any of the sensor data that was captured within a threshold radial distance from the scrubbed geographic location in accordance with the cloaking request; and

receiving, by the one or more computing devices of the server computing device, filtered sensor data.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing the filtered sensor data in memory for further processing.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the geographic location is associated with a corresponding timestamp, such that when a duration of time elapses relative to the timestamps, the one or more computing devices of the one or more server computing devices discards the scrubbed geographic location.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the scrubbing includes at least one of removing, filtering, amending, and anonymizing the any identification information related to the user.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensor data includes a plurality of images, and the instructions to filter include instructions to discard at least one image of the plurality of images that was captured within the threshold radial distance from the geographic location.

13. The system of claim 8, further comprising, prior to sending the instructions:

identifying, by the one or more server computing devices, a relevant area based on the geographic location; and

identifying, by the one or more server computing devices, a set of vehicles within the relevant area, wherein the set of vehicles includes the vehicle, and

wherein sending the instructions is further based on the set of vehicles.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising, sending, by the one or more computing devices, instructions to a second vehicle of the set of vehicles to filter second sensor data captured by the second vehicle'"'"'s sensors in order to remove any of the second sensor data that was captured within a threshold radial distance from the geographic location.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions specify a value of the a threshold radial distance.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more server computing devices are further configured to send the scrubbed geographic location data as GPS location data.