Cloaking with footprints to provide location privacy protection in location-based services
First Claim
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium bearing one or more instructions for providing location-based services to a user by cloaking a location using footprints comprising:
- receiving a location associated with a mobile node, wherein the location of the mobile node comprises a selection of a spatial region from the user;
receiving an anonymity level associated with the location of the mobile node;
computing a region containing the location of the mobile node and a number of footprints based on the anonymity level, wherein each of the footprints is from a different user and said footprints comprise historical location samples stored in an accessible database and said number of footprints taken from the database; and
providing the region to a location-based service to thereby preserve anonymity of the mobile node;
wherein computing the region comprises determining a minimal bounding circle being computed with a polynomial-time algorithm.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for using a location-based service while preserving anonymity includes receiving a location associated with a mobile node, receiving an anonymity level associated with the mobile node, computing a region containing the location of the mobile node and a number of footprints based on the anonymity level, wherein each of the footprints from a different user, and providing the region to a location-based service to thereby preserve anonymity of the mobile node. A method also allow a mobile device or its user to specify the anonymity level by selecting a public region consistent with a user'"'"'s feelings towards desired privacy.
8 Citations
6 Claims
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1. A non-transitory computer readable medium bearing one or more instructions for providing location-based services to a user by cloaking a location using footprints comprising:
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receiving a location associated with a mobile node, wherein the location of the mobile node comprises a selection of a spatial region from the user; receiving an anonymity level associated with the location of the mobile node; computing a region containing the location of the mobile node and a number of footprints based on the anonymity level, wherein each of the footprints is from a different user and said footprints comprise historical location samples stored in an accessible database and said number of footprints taken from the database; and providing the region to a location-based service to thereby preserve anonymity of the mobile node; wherein computing the region comprises determining a minimal bounding circle being computed with a polynomial-time algorithm. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A mobile device for providing location-based services to a user by cloaking an instant location using footprints, the mobile device comprising:
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a cellular transceiver and a global positioning system (gps) receiver and wherein the mobile device configured to receive a selection of a spatial region from the user; a computer associated with the mobile device for computing an anonymity level associated with the user, wherein said computer comprising a database comprising a plurality of footprints, wherein the footprints are different mobile devices'"'"' historical location samples; and wherein said computer configured to compute a region containing the spatial region of the mobile device and a number of footprints from the database based on the anonymity level to thereby cloak when the user is within the region and to provide the region to a location-based service to thereby preserve anonymity of the mobile device; and wherein computing the region comprises determining a minimal bounding circle being computed with a polynomial-time algorithm.
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Specification