A lightweight anonymity & location privacy service

Abstract

As embedded systems, in their various forms, become ubiquitous, new types of services are offered, aiming to enhance every aspect of the everyday life and allowing users to enjoy pervasive and personalized access to information. Along with the benefits come considerable threats to users' privacy, as these enhanced services operate on private sensitive information, such as the true identity and location of users. This paper proposes a lightweight, distributed anonymity and location privacy service which can be deployed on mobile embedded systems (e.g. smart clothing, smart phones), even heterogeneous in nature, allowing users to form communities which help them hide their identities and exact location. Acting as a proxy the proposed service can sanitize users' requests prior to forwarding them to a location-based service (LBS). The deployment of this type of information sanitization proxy would facilitate the wider adoption of the new generation of enhanced reality applications and services, alleviating the justified concerns regarding users' privacy.