I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility Research and Demonstration Preparation for Privacy-Preserving Location Based Services

这个项目的成功完成将导致对PI在两个NSF赞助的研究项目中开发的基于隐私保护的位置服务(LBS)技术的商业化可行性做出明确的通过或不通过的决定。如果做出有利的决定，该项目还将制定商业化过渡计划和移动应用程序，向潜在合作伙伴演示保护隐私的基于位置的服务(LBS)技术。LBS在网络上广泛流行，但也引发了隐私问题，移动设备中因疏忽收集位置数据而引发的负面宣传就是明证。PI的隐私保护技术使LBS能够在不侵犯用户隐私的情况下-S。具体地说，这些技术保护两种类型的隐私：(1)位置隐私--即，团队阻止LBS服务器获知用户的真实位置；(2)查询隐私--即，团队阻止LBS服务器了解用户正在搜索的内容(例如，酒吧、博物馆)。与此同时，这些技术通过向用户提供极其准确的(如果不是精确的)LBS查询答案来保持LBS的质量。该项目将有可能对国家--S高新技术产业产生更广泛的影响。许多对安全敏感的公司、政府和安全机构都需要能够控制何时(以及是否)可以向LBS服务器披露员工的位置。同样，经过经验验证的保护移动设备普通用户位置隐私的方法将使除LBS提供商和无线运营商之外的广大无线用户社区受益。该项目还将对移动LBS市场产生更广泛的影响。特别是，该团队提供的保护隐私的LBS应用程序预计将提高无线用户对围绕LBS的隐私问题的认识，并最终说服大多数LBS提供商在其系统中添加隐私保护功能(例如，通过集成和/或许可拟议的技术)。该项目的更广泛影响也延伸到了研究界和学术界。特别是，项目中进行的市场研究将增进对位置隐私问题的科学和技术理解。

The successful completion of this project will lead to a clear go/no-go decision regarding the viability of commercializing the privacy-preserving location based services (LBS) techniques the PI developed in two NSF-sponsored research projects. Should a favorable decision be made, this project will also produce a transition plan for commercialization and a mobile application for demonstrating the privacy-preserving Location-Based-Services (LBS) technology to potential partners. LBS, are widely prevalent on the web but also raise privacy concerns, as evidenced by the negative publicity surrounding jigh-profile inadvertent collection of location data in mobile devices. The PI's privacy-preserving techniques enable LBS without violating a user?s privacy. Specifically, the techniques protect two types of privacy: (1) location privacy - i.e., the team prevents an LBS server from learning a user's real location; (2) query privacy - i.e., the team prevents the LBS server from learning what the user is searching for (e.g., bar, museum). At the same time, the echniques maintain the quality of LBS by providing the user with extremely accurate, if not precise, LBS query answers. This project will has the potential to have broader impacts on the nation?s high-tech industries. The ability to control when (and whether) an employee's location can or cannot be disclosed to an LBS server is needed by a wide variety of security-sensitive corporations, governments, and security agencies. Similarly, empirically validated means to protect the location privacy of ordinary users of mobile devices will benefit the wireless user community at large, in addition to LBS providers and wireless carriers. This project will also have broader impacts on the market of mobile LBS. In particular, the team's offering of a privacy-preserving LBS application is expected to raise wireless users' awareness of privacy issues surrounding LBS, and to eventually convince most LBS providers to add privacy-preserving features to their systems (e.g., by integrating and/or licensing the proposed techniques). The broader impact of this project also extends to the research community and academia. In particular, the market studies conducted in the project will enhance scientific and technological understanding of the location privacy problem.