Location obfuscation
Encyclopedia
Location obfuscation is a technique used in location-based service
s or information system
s to protect the location of the users by slightly altering, substituting or generalizing their location in order to avoid reflecting their real position.
A formal definition of Location Obfuscation can be "the means of deliberately degrading the quality of information about an individual's location in order to protect that individual's location privacy.".
One example of the application of Location Obfuscation can be seen in the following figure.
In this figure, a linear path is obfucated by two versions of the random noise technique, in which a maximum random noise of 20 (red) and 40 (green) meters is added to the original path (blue), showing a very different trajectory and not revealing the real location of the user.
Location-based service
A Location-Based Service is an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device....
s or information system
Information system
An information system - or application landscape - is any combination of information technology and people's activities that support operations, management, and decision making. In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people,...
s to protect the location of the users by slightly altering, substituting or generalizing their location in order to avoid reflecting their real position.
A formal definition of Location Obfuscation can be "the means of deliberately degrading the quality of information about an individual's location in order to protect that individual's location privacy.".
Obfuscation Techniques
The most common techniques to perform this change are:- Pseudonyms and the use of third party location providers
- "Spatial cloaking" techniques in which a user is k-anonymous if her exact location cannot be distinguished among k-1 other users
- "Invisible cloaking", in which no locations are provides for certain zones
- Adding random noise to the position
- Rounding, which uses landmarks to approximate the location
- Redefinition of possible areas of location.
One example of the application of Location Obfuscation can be seen in the following figure.
In this figure, a linear path is obfucated by two versions of the random noise technique, in which a maximum random noise of 20 (red) and 40 (green) meters is added to the original path (blue), showing a very different trajectory and not revealing the real location of the user.