MyGeoTrust: A Platform for Trusted Crowdsourced Geospatial Data

R.E. Guinness, H. Kuusniemi, J. Vallet, T. Sarjakoski, J. Oksanen, M. Islam, M. Syeed, H-M. Halkosaari, P. Kettunen, M. Laakso, M. Rönneberg

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Today, companies such as Google and Apple require you to accept broad-reaching license agreements in order to enable location services on mobile devices (e.g. smartphones), which give them the legal right to share your location information with third-parties of their choosing (e.g. Google, 2014; Apple, 2014). This collected information includes at least location updates derived from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and the identity and strength of available radio networks, such as cellular networks and wireless local area networks (WLAN). Data products and services derived from crowdsourced mobile data are relevant to many different market segments, such as transportation, advertising, urban planning, media and entertainment, real estate, health, and education (e.g. Oksanen et al., 2014). In Finland, a research project called MyGeoTrust has been initiated to challenge the status quo regarding collecting, delivering and using crowdsourced mobile data, due to the privacy issues inherent in this area. The project will develop and demonstrate a mobile middleware stack and modular server application designed to address these privacy issues. The middleware implements a privacy model that offers the mobile user greater privacy protection and control. The privacy model is implemented as a set of “privacy profiles” representing different privacy settings. The user’s chosen privacy profile controls access to various mobile operating system (OS) resources, such as location services, as well as the type of sharing that occurs from mobile applications that utilize this middleware (e.g. anonymous sharing, sharing within a private group, no sharing at all, etc.). In addition, we aim to develop and implement several open application programming interfaces (APIs) that utilize the data crowdsourced from mobile users, doing so in a way that respects the users’ privacy choices. These open APIs will be made available to third-parties who can use them to develop their own derivative products and services. This paper introduces the principles and concepts behind the MyGeoTrust project and presents the initial architectural development that has been completed during the first months of the project. Initial tests of the prototype system demonstrate that the architecture is scalable within the scope of the project’s first phase and relatively inexpensive to operate. Finally, our roadmap of future work is discussed.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015) September 14 - 18, 2015 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	2455 - 2469
Cite this article:	Guinness, R.E., Kuusniemi, H., Vallet, J., Sarjakoski, T., Oksanen, J., Islam, M., Syeed, M., Halkosaari, H-M., Kettunen, P., Laakso, M., Rönneberg, M., "MyGeoTrust: A Platform for Trusted Crowdsourced Geospatial Data," Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015), Tampa, Florida, September 2015, pp. 2455-2469.
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