A Survey of Location Privacy and an Approach for Solitary Users

Location-based systems (LBS) continue to grow in popularity as applications are developed to use an estimate of a user's location. Location estimates can be created using a variety of information including true location sources and network information. Regardless of the source or type of location information, aggregating all available information may produce a more accurate estimate of a user's location. A user cannot manage the use of location and network information once it has been sent to the LBS, and must assume that an observer has access to this information and can use it to estimate the user's location. Anyone with access to this information can use the same algorithm to estimate the user's location. This creates an issue of location privacy that must be addressed. This survey frames the problem of location privacy through related work and presents an alternate approach to preserving a user's privacy for consideration