Developing a Framework for Privacy in LocationBased Services LBS

1
Developing a Framework for Privacy in
Location-Based Services (LBS)

• David Van Riper
• Tom Whitfield
• CSci 8715 Group 3
• 27 April 2004

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Problem Statement
• Literature Review
• Our Contributions
• Outline of Framework
• Privacy by Current Service Providers
• Conclusion

3
Motivation

• Ubiquity of GPS
• Growing interest of knowing exact location
• Increased safety and security
• Much greater interest in providing third-party
  services based on location
• Provide additional consumer service
• Generate new revenue (subscriptions,
  advertisements, etc.)
• Service vs. privacy

4
Problem Statement

• Potential growth of LBS poses a direct threat to
  personal privacy
• GPS in personal electronic devices
• PDAs
• Laptops
• Cellular phones
• Potential for abuse
• Government
• Commercial companies
• Individuals (hacker trackers)

5
Problem Statement

• Individuals have the right to control what
  location information is collected and shared
• Existing literature provides some insight, but
  what are the companies providing these services
  doing to protect this?
• LBS providers
• Cellular providers

6
Relevant Work Surveillance Technologies

• GPS is a main surveillance technology used in LBS
• Group 1s presentation discussed other
  technologies

7
Relevant Work LBS Privacy

• Privacy aspects of LBS must be addressed if LBS
  firms want the market to expand (Divis 2003
  Culnan and Bies 2003)
• Some work from computer science community
  addressing the need to incorporate privacy
  awareness in LBS computing (Minch 2004 Hong and
  Landay 2004)
• Unregulated use of LBS geoslavery (Dobson and
  Fisher 2003)

8
Relevant Work WLIA Definitions
9
Relevant Work WLIA Guidelines

• Nature of the information being used and/or
  collected
• Members policy on data ownership and storage
• Individual choices regarding data use and
  collection
• Use of information, including third-party
  distribution
• Statement of the commitment to data security
• Specific steps to ensure data quality and access
  by the subscriber to their own geographically
  tagged personally identifiable data
• Process by which a subscriber or authorized user
  can propose to correct any wrong information
• Contact information within the company

10
Framework
11
Privacy LBS Providers

• Balancing personal privacy and consumer
  incentives
• Emergency Roadside Assistance (OnStar, AAA)
• Stolen Vehicle Recovery (OnStar, Lo-Jack)
• In-Vehicle Navigation (OnStar)
• Does personal privacy hold true when maintaining
  a vehicle fleet?
• Larger companies (Autodesk) vs. smaller, more
  specialized firms (Kivera, TruePosition)

12
Privacy LBS Providers
13
Privacy Cellular Providers

• 14 companies surveyed
• All eight major cellular providers in North
  America
• Two companies each Europe, Asia, and Australia
• Few actually mention LBS as a service built into
  their telephones and networks
• Only four companies (two N. America, two Europe)
  mention location in privacy policies
• Nine mention LBS as a service, but most are brief

14
Privacy Cellular Providers
15
Conclusion

• Guidelines are still in their infancy stage
• LBS demands are still growing
• Fleet vehicles well-established
• General public still debated
• Privacy policies are still sparse to non-existent
• Push for implementation may (should) propel
  policy solidification further
• Will companies move forward without policy?

16
References

• Brin, D. 1998. The Transparent Society Will
  Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and
  Freedom? Reading, MA Addison-Wesley.
• Culnan, M.J., and Bies, R.J. 2003. Consumer
  privacy balancing economic and justice
  considerations. Journal of Social Issues 59(2)
  323-342.
• Divis, D.A. 2003. Saving private location.
  GPSWorld 1 October 2003. Internet
  http//www.gpsworld.com Accessed 1 March 2004.
• Dobson, J.E., and Fisher, P.F. 2003.
  Geoslavery. IEEE Technology and Society
  Magazine 22(1) 47-52.
• Etzioni, A. 1999. The Limits of Privacy. New
  York Basic Books.
• Garfinkel, S. 2000. Database Nation The Death of
  Privacy in the 21st Century. Cambridge, MA
  OReilly Press.

17
References

• Gibbons, G. 2003. On the wrong track? GPSWorld
  1 October 2003. Internet http//www.gpsworld.com
  Accessed 1 March 2004.
• Lyon, D. 2001. Surveillance Society Monitoring
  Everyday Life. Buckingham, UK Open University
  Press.
• Lyon, D. (ed.). 2003. Surveillance as Social
  Sorting Privacy, Risk and Automated
  Discrimination. London Routledge.
• Monmonier, M. 2002. Spying with Maps
  Surveillance Technologies and the Future of
  Privacy. Chicago University of Chicago Press.
• Petersen, J.K. 2000. Understanding Surveillance
  Technologies Spy Devices, Their Origins
  Applications. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press.
• Renenger, A. 2001/2002. Satellite tracking and
  the right to privacy. Hastings Law Journal 53
  549-565.
• WLIA. 2001. Wireless Location Industry
  Association. Internet http//www.wliaonline.com
  Accessed 5 April 2004.