Geographic Location Consensus for Transaction Compliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transaction processing systems face challenges in accurately determining the geographic location of user devices, especially when they are near borders or attempting to obscure their location, leading to potential violations of regulatory rules and incorrect processing of transactions.
Innovation Solution
The system evaluates geographic location information from multiple data sources, including edge servers, cellular towers, Wi-Fi access points, and GPS, to determine a consensus on the user device's location and applies relevant rules from different geographic regions for processing transactions, ensuring compliance with local regulations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the system uses a single data source for location determination, then the processing speed is fast, but the location accuracy is insufficient especially near borders or when location is obscured
Solution Approach 1:
The system combines multiple location determination data sources (GPS coordinates, cellular tower triangulation, Wi-Fi access point positioning, IP address geolocation) into a unified location assessment. By merging these diverse data sources, the system achieves more accurate location determination, particularly in border regions or when GPS signals are obscured, while managing the complexity through integrated processing architecture.
2Measurement precision
If the system performs multiple location determination operations, then the location accuracy improves, but the processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary location determination using the most reliable and fastest data sources first (such as GPS if available, or cellular tower triangulation). Based on the confidence level and consistency of these preliminary results, the system then decides whether additional location determination operations are necessary, thereby reducing unnecessary processing time while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a baseline number of location determination operations for all transactions, and only performs additional operations when the initial results indicate uncertainty (such as locations near borders or inconsistent data). This partial application of multiple operations optimizes the balance between accuracy and processing time.
3Reliability
If the system determines location near borders, then the regulatory compliance is challenging, but using multiple data sources increases the complexity of consensus determination
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where the results of multiple location determination operations are continuously evaluated against consensus thresholds. When location results are consistent across multiple data sources and meet the consensus threshold, the system confidently determines the applicable jurisdiction. When results diverge (indicating border proximity), the system adjusts the consensus threshold or requests additional data, thereby managing compliance reliability while controlling complexity through adaptive feedback.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed relating to determining whether geographic locations of a user computing device satisfy a location consensus threshold. A computer system receives results of a plurality of location determination operations, each of which specifies a geographic location of a computing device initiating an action. The computer system then makes a determination whether the received results satisfy a consensus threshold as to geographic location of the computing device. In some embodiments, the determination is usable to select, from a plurality of sets of rules for different geographic regions, a particular set of rules for processing the action. In some cases, the particular set of rules is usable to determine whether to process the action. Such techniques may advantageously allow a processing system to understand how to process actions initiated by a computing device associated with different geographic locations.