Location-aware mining for privacy-preserving location-based advertising

Abstract

Mobile advertisements are critical for both mobile users and businesses as people spend more time on mobile devices than on PCs. However, how to send relevant advertisements and avoid unnecessary ones to specific mobile users is always a challenge. For example, a concert-goer may like to visit restaurants or parks before the concert and may not like the advertisements of grocery stores or farmers' markets. This research tries to overcome the challenge by using the methods of location-aware mining. Furthermore, privacy is always a great concern for location-based advertising (LBA) users because their location information has to be shared in order to use the LBA. This research also takes the concern into serious consideration, so the user privacy will not be compromised. Preliminary experiment results show the proposed methods are effective and user-privacy is rigorously preserved.