Location Privacy in Multiple Social Contexts

Personal location data is stored as the result of using equipment that many people now own or have access to. Typically this data contains details of identity, location and the time the equipment was used. The data is usually stored in a central repository, held by the organisation owning the network or related equipment, and it is assumed that access controls are in place and privacy policies are adhered to. It would be unusual in such circumstance for the equipment user, the Tracked Entity, to set their access controls and privacy policies. An alternative architecture is available for systems that store personal location data and is based upon local storage of data allied to locally applied access controls. Such a system can pose problems, particularly in the spatial processing of data, but has the advantage that the Tracked Entity may have control over the data and the access controls. A system of access controls to personal location data is proposed that could operate with either architecture and could be plugged into a variety of access control models. These controls allow for the disclosure of information in different ways for different users. In controlling who has access to the data and also in setting the spatial and temporal constraints on the data it is possible to create a complex set of controls via a simple interface. Thus an individual would be able to manage their location data for differing social contexts from the same piece of software