A survey on privacy in mobile participatory sensing applications

► Survey of sensing modalities in existing participatory sensing applications. ► Analysis of privacy implications and threats in participatory sensing. ► Examination of privacy mechanisms for participatory sensing. ► Identification of salient privacy research challenges in participatory sensing. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of systems and software 2011-11, Vol.84 (11), p.1928-1946
Main Authors: Christin, Delphine, Reinhardt, Andreas, Kanhere, Salil S., Hollick, Matthias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cell phones
Cellular telephones
Collection
Computer programs
Detection
Mobile sensing
Participatory sensing
Personal information
Privacy
Sensors
Software
Studies
Tracking
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Summary:► Survey of sensing modalities in existing participatory sensing applications. ► Analysis of privacy implications and threats in participatory sensing. ► Examination of privacy mechanisms for participatory sensing. ► Identification of salient privacy research challenges in participatory sensing. The presence of multimodal sensors on current mobile phones enables a broad range of novel mobile applications. Environmental and user-centric sensor data of unprecedented quantity and quality can be captured and reported by a possible user base of billions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide. The strong focus on the collection of detailed sensor data may however compromise user privacy in various regards, e.g., by tracking a user’s current location. In this survey, we identify the sensing modalities used in current participatory sensing applications, and assess the threats to user privacy when personal information is sensed and disclosed. We outline how privacy aspects are addressed in existing sensing applications, and determine the adequacy of the solutions under real-world conditions. Finally, we present countermeasures from related research fields, and discuss their applicability in participatory sensing scenarios. Based on our findings, we identify open issues and outline possible solutions to guarantee user privacy in participatory sensing.
ISSN:0164-1212
1873-1228
DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2011.06.073