Enhancing location privacy in wireless LAN through disposable interface identifiers

The recent proliferation of wireless local area networks (WLAN) has introduced new location privacy risks. An adversary controlling several access points could triangulate a client's position. In addition, interface identifiers uniquely identify each client, allowing tracking of location over t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mobile networks and applications 2005-06, Vol.10, p.315-325
Main Authors: Gruteser, Marco, Grunwald, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The recent proliferation of wireless local area networks (WLAN) has introduced new location privacy risks. An adversary controlling several access points could triangulate a client's position. In addition, interface identifiers uniquely identify each client, allowing tracking of location over time. We enhance location privacy through frequent disposal of a client's interface identifier. While not preventing triangulation per se, it protects against an adversary following a user's movements over time. Design challenges include selecting new interface identifiers, detecting address collisions at the MAC layer, and timing identifier switches to balance network disruptions against privacy protection. Using a modified authentication protocol, network operators can still control access to their network. An analysis of a public WLAN usage trace shows that disposing addresses before reassociation already yields significant privacy improvements.
ISSN:1383-469X
DOI:10.1145/1145911.1145917