My home is my secret: concealing sensitive locations by context-aware trajectory truncation

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Anna Brauer - , Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, University of Helsinki (Author)
  • Ville Mäkinen - , Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI (Author)
  • Axel Forsch - , University of Bonn (Author)
  • Juha Oksanen - , Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI (Author)
  • Jan-Henrik Haunert - , University of Bonn (Author)

Abstract

Ever since location-based services and mobile applications collecting data gathered through Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning have become popular, concerns about location privacy have been expressed. Research has shown that human trajectory repositories containing sequences of observed locations ordered in time constitute a rich source for analyzing movement patterns, but they can also reveal sensitive personal information, such as a person’s home address. In this paper, we present a mechanism that protects visits to sensitive locations by suppressing revealing parts of trajectories. Our attack model acknowledges that the course of a trajectory, combined with spatial context information, can facilitate privacy breaches even if sensitive locations have been concealed. Thus, we introduce the concept of k-site-unidentifiability, a specialization of k-anonymity, under which a sensitive location cannot be singled out from a group of at least k sites that the trajectory could have visited. In an experimental study, we show that our method is utility-preserving and protects sensitive locations reliably even in sparsely built environments. As it can process each trajectory independently, individuals may also use our mechanism to enhance their privacy before publishing their trajectories.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2496-2524
Number of pages29
JournalInternational journal of geographical information science
Volume36
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 2 Dec 2022
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85131525377

Keywords

Library keywords