Location Privacy Protection in the Mobile Era and Beyond

Location Privacy;Bluetooth Low Energy;Indoor Localization;Differential Privacy;Mobile privacy;Computer Science;Engineering;Computer Science & Engineering

Fawaz, KassemPrakash, Atul ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Location Privacy;    Bluetooth Low Energy;    Indoor Localization;    Differential Privacy;    Mobile privacy;    Computer Science;    Engineering;    Computer Science & Engineering;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/138563/kmfawaz_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

As interconnected devices become embedded in every aspect of our lives, they accompanymany privacy risks. Location privacy is one notable case, consistently recording an individual’slocation might lead to his/her tracking, fingerprinting and profiling. An individual’slocation privacy can be compromised when tracked by smartphone apps, in indoor spaces,and/or through Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Recent surveys have indicated that usersgenuinely value their location privacy and would like to exercise control over who collectsand processes their location data. They, however, lack the effective and practical tools toprotect their location privacy. An effective location privacy protection mechanism requiresreal understanding of the underlying threats, and a practical one requires as little changes tothe existing ecosystems as possible while ensuring psychological acceptability to the users.This thesis addresses this problem by proposing a suite of effective and practical privacypreserving mechanisms that address different aspects of real-world location privacy threats.First, we present LP-Guardian, a comprehensive framework for location privacy protectionfor Android smartphone users. LP-Guardian overcomes the shortcomings of existingapproaches by addressing the tracking, profiling, and fingerprinting threats posed by different mobile apps while maintaining their functionality. LP-Guardian requires modifyingthe underlying platform of the mobile operating system, but no changes in either the appsor service provider. We then propose LP-Doctor, a light-weight user-level tool which allowsAndroid users to effectively utilize the OS’s location access controls. As opposed toLP-Guardian, LP-Doctor requires no platform changes. It builds on a two year data collectioncampaign in which we analyzed the location privacy threats posed by 1160 apps for100 users. For the case of indoor location tracking, we present PR-LBS (Privacy vs. Rewardfor Location-Based Service), a system that balances the users’ privacy concerns andthe benefits of sharing location data in indoor location tracking environments. PR-LBSfits within the existing indoor localization ecosystem whether it is infrastructure-basedor device-based. Finally, we target the privacy threats originating from the IoT devicesthat employ the emerging Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol through BLE-Guardian.BLE-Guardian is a device agnostic system that prevents user tracking and profiling whilesecuring access to his/her BLE-powered devices. We evaluate BLE-Guardian in real-worldscenarios and demonstrate its effectiveness in protecting the user along with its low overheadon the user’s devices.