Encrypted Location Privacy Mechanism for LBS

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current location-based service provider systems either compromise user privacy by continuous location tracking or require manual user input and sporadic location updates, leading to inefficiencies in advertising and service delivery.

Innovation Solution

A system where users designate approved locations, and their mobile devices send encrypted location data to the provider only when near these locations, allowing the provider to determine and share location-based services without constant tracking, thus maintaining privacy and reducing user effort.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If the user's device continually broadcasts location to the LBS provider, then the provider can continuously determine user location for timely service delivery, but user location privacy is completely compromised

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveservice delivery timelinessVSAvoidlocation privacy loss

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces encrypted location data as an intermediary between the user's actual location and the LBS provider. The provider receives and processes encrypted location information without being able to decrypt or know the actual location, enabling service delivery while preserving privacy through this intermediate layer of encryption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables location privacy protection specifically when the user is not near selected businesses, while allowing location access when needed for service delivery. This creates different privacy levels in different spatial contexts, applying encryption consistently but only revealing location when geographically relevant.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Object-affected harmful factors

If the user manually checks in and sends location sporadically, then user location privacy is partially protected, but the user must actively participate and may miss location-based services

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation privacy protectionVSAvoiduser effort requirement

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs automatic location-based service delivery without requiring manual user action. The user's device continually sends encrypted location data, and the provider automatically processes this data and delivers services when the user is near selected businesses, eliminating the need for manual check-ins while maintaining privacy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system maintains continuous location monitoring and service delivery capability through automated encrypted location sending, eliminating the sporadic nature of manual check-ins. This ensures no services are missed while keeping the user effort minimal after initial setup.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

3Object-affected harmful factors

If the user downloads all business locations to the mobile device, then the user can determine proximity without broadcasting location, but computation burden shifts to the mobile device and database contents are exposed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation privacy protectionVSAvoidmobile device computation burden

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of having the user's device determine proximity by comparing against downloaded business locations, the system inverts the approach: the LBS provider performs the proximity determination using encrypted location data. This shifts computation burden back to the provider while maintaining privacy through encryption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #13The other way round (Inversion)

4Object-affected harmful factors

If the LBS provider receives user location only sporadically from manual check-ins, then user privacy is partially protected, but businesses miss potential customers and advertising effectiveness decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocation privacy protectionVSAvoidadvertising effectiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-affected harmful factorsVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables continuous location monitoring and service delivery by automatically sending encrypted location data from the user's device. This ensures the LBS provider continuously receives location information to deliver timely services, maintaining advertising effectiveness while preserving user privacy through encryption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Data Source

PatentUS9137631B2Location-based service provider method and system having a user controlled location privacy mechanism

Publication Date: 2015.09.15 PITNEY BOWERS INC

AI summary

Methods and systems that allow a user to receive location-based services for user selected businesses while maintaining the privacy of his/her location when not in the vicinity of a user selected business. A user designates selected businesses to the LBS provider. The user's mobile device sends its location, in encrypted form, to the LBS provider. The LBS provider performs a computation on the encrypted location and returns an encrypted result to the user's mobile device. The user's mobile device decrypts the result and determines whether the user is near any selected businesses based on the decrypted result. Only if the decrypted result indicates the user is near an approved location will the users mobile device return its location, in an unencrypted form, to the LBS provider. Thus, the LBS provider will only know the user's location if and only if the use is near a business selected by the user.