A middleware architecture for integrating privacy preferences and location accuracy

Abstract

Location-Based Access Control (LBAC) systems support the evaluation of conditions on locations in the enforcement of access control policies. The ability to evaluate conditions on a set of authorized locations has a number of well-known advantages, including enriching access control expressiveness. However, when locations are used in combination with personal identities, users privacy must be considered. In this paper, we describe a solution to integrate a LBAC system with privacy-enhanced techniques based on location obfuscation. Our solution is based on a privacy-aware middleware component that explicitly addresses the trade-off between users privacy and location accuracy by satisfying preferences set by users and maximizing the quality of location information released to LBAC systems. © 2007 International Federation for Information Processing.