RE: Geolocation: Security and Privacy

To accomplish "Data fuzzing," I think the easiest solution is to randomize the lat/long values to some number of decimal places based on what the user is willing to give. I agree that bounding boxes and center points of cities makes a lot of sense, but that seems like an implementation nightmare - all the central points/bounding boxes would need to be stored in a database somewhere and accessed.

One alternative is to only perform limited reverse geocoding (i.e. only give the city, state, country) for sites that the user does not trust and withhold the lat/long values. Then if the user gives consent (via UI?), the actual coordinate could be returned.

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Butler [mailto:cbutler@dash.net]
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 6:47 PM
To: Alec Berntson; public-geolocation@w3.org
Subject: RE: Geolocation: Security and Privacy

Hi Alec.

I think that you make a good point about the 'fuzzing' of user location.
I wonder what the best way to do this though is.

In the case of just giving city level information, here are some
options:

* Lat/lon of a geocoded center of the city
* Geocode-able city name
* Bounding box of the city

The last option sounds like the best since it is non specific and
doesn't give any single point as the location...

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Chris Butler | Content Platform Evangelist, Dash Navigation | Office:
408-543-2939 | Mobile: 415-577-9130 | Fax: 408-400-0939

-----Original Message-----
From: public-geolocation-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-geolocation-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Alec Berntson
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 11:32 AM
To: public-geolocation@w3.org
Subject: Geolocation: Security and Privacy


One of the most important aspects of the geolocation API spec (IMO) will
be the privacy and security requirements. The user's current location is
probably the most one of the most sensitive pieces of personal
information available. The references in the draft spec point to a few
solid approaches that I would like to highlight (and build on):

Opt-out by default
    By default, no page can access the users location

UI to alert the user
    There needs to be an alert when a page requests the user's location
    There needs to be some form of status UI indicating when location
data is being accessed

Least privilege
    The user should be given the option to allow access to a page (or
domain) for
       Just this once
       Just this session
       Always
    Data 'fuzzing'
       User can control how much resolution to give to a page
       Add noise to the data if more accurate information is available
than is requested

Logging
    Keep a log of what information was given out to whom

Hope that kicks off some discussion!
    -Alec

Received on Monday, 9 June 2008 18:16:56 UTC