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Wireless Location Privacy Protection

Bill Schilit, Intel ResearchJason Hong, University of Califonia, Berkeley

Marco Gruteser, University of Colorado at Boulder

published in IEEE Computer, vol. 36, no. 12, December 2003

2005/011/21Presented by Hojin Lee

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Contents

IntroductionPrivacy risks

Economic damagesLocation-based spamHarm to a reputation

Protecting privacyIntermittent connectivityNetwork privacy

Conclusion

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Introduction

Location-based services are emerging as the next killer app

dialing 911 by a landline phone in the United States: displays the caller’s phone number and address to dispatcherThe US FCC has mandated that, by December 2005, all cellular carriers be able to identify the location of emergency callers

There are few safeguards on location privacyThe Wireless Privacy Protection Act of 2003: “to require customer consent to the provision of wireless call location information”Commercial entities are adept at concealing questionable practices with fine print in a service contract or click-wrap agreement

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Privacy

Malleable concept based on societal perceptions of risk and benefit

Using credit card

The challenge with wireless location privacy

making it easy share the right information with the right people or service at the right time

being able to opt out at will

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Privacy risks – economic damage

Information about a person’s movement or activities can result in financial losses

Rental car company fined a customer $450 for speeding after tracking his vans with GPS

• Rental contract included a warning that speeding would result in additional fees

• The driver successfully sued the company for failing to adequately explain how it used the location-tracking system

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Privacy risks – location-based spam

Discover and match a person’s location trail to create unwelcome spam

Cybermarketers could bombard a mobile device with customized voice and data ads, as an individual strolls through a mall

Buy and sell location traces

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Privacy risks – harm to a reputation

Disclosure to location information may cause embarrassment or humiliation

By exposing a diet doctor’s tendency to frequent fast-food restaurant

Such revelations can lead to tragic consequences including resignation, ostracism, or even suicide, …

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Protecting privacy

Positioning systemsNetwork-based

Network-assisted

Client-based• fundamentally better than networks-based or

network-assisted tracking

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Protecting privacy – intermittent connectivity

Operating while disconnectedavoid revealing precise location information by retrieving geographically coded records one set at a time rather than individually through separate queries

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Protecting privacy – networks privacy

Wi-Fi wireless networks and hotspots are based on the Internet protocol

TraceRoute – expose packet routes and therefore source location

=> Mobile IP: fixed home agent

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Conclusion

Wireless location-based services are the next killer appWe should consider wireless location privacy!

economic damage, location-based spam, harm to reputation, …