Proximity-Based Location Sharing for Privacy and Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current location sharing technologies often infringe on privacy, as they continuously share a user's geographical location without considering proximity to designated individuals or places, failing to balance safety concerns with privacy needs.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that conditionally share a user's location based on proximity to a group of designated people or places, providing generalized status information instead of precise location when within the group, using GPS and WiFi positioning to determine proximity and manage sharing settings through a location sharing server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If continuous location sharing is implemented, then safety and location awareness are improved, but privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different quality levels of location information sharing based on the spatial relationship between users. When users are in close proximity (within threshold distance), no location information is shared. When users are farther apart, generalized location information is shared. This creates a local quality variation in information sharing based on spatial context, resolving the contradiction between safety and privacy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of location information specificity based on proximity conditions. Instead of continuously sharing precise location data, the system dynamically adjusts the level of detail shared - from no information when close to generalized information when far - thereby maintaining safety while preserving privacy through parameter transformation.
2Loss of information
If precise geographic location is shared continuously, then location awareness is improved, but privacy intrusion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements partial action by sharing only the necessary amount of location information based on proximity conditions. Instead of continuous precise location sharing, it selectively shares generalized location data only when users are beyond a certain distance threshold, providing sufficient location awareness while minimizing privacy intrusion through controlled partial information disclosure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary mechanism (proximity threshold evaluation) between the user and the location sharing process. This intermediary assesses the spatial relationship and determines the appropriate level of information sharing, acting as a mediator that balances location awareness needs with privacy protection by filtering and transforming location data before transmission.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A method for providing adaptive location sharing based on proximity may include identifying a group of entities (people and/or places) associated with a target person, receiving, from a mobile communications device associated with the target person, location data indicative of a current geographic location of the target person, determining, using the location data, that the target person is proximate to at least a first entity of the group, generating a proximity message, and sending the proximity message to a remote monitoring device to cause the remote monitoring device to display a location-based status of the target person. The location-based status does not specify any geographic location of the target person.