Towards Understanding Location Privacy Awareness on Geo-Social Networks

Alia I. Abdelmoty,Fatma Alrayes

doi:10.3390/ijgi6040109

Abstract

Users' awareness of the extent of information implicit in their geo-profiles on social networks is limited. This questions the validity of their consent to the collection, storage and use of their data. Tools for location privacy awareness are needed that provide users with accessible means for understanding the implicit content in their location information as well as a view of the level of risk to their privacy as a consequence of disclosing this information. Towards this goal, an abstract model of location privacy threat levels is first derived from a user study involving 186 users. This is then used to inform the design of a prototype privacy feedback tool for a location-based social network. Another user study involving 338 users of this network is carried out to test the effectiveness of the proposed design. Findings confirm the strong need of users for more transparent access to and control over their location profiles and guide the proposal of recommendations to the design of more privacy-sensitive geo-social networks.

Highlights

‘Social privacy’ concerns how an individual manages self-disclosures, availability, and access to information about themselves by other people when using social-driven applications [1]
To manage social privacy on Geo-Social Networks (GeoSNs), one needs to understand the level of threat implied by his location information disclosure and be able to relate it to the scope of visibility granted for this information
We focus on user content awareness and in particular location content awareness in relation to privacy on GeoSNs

Summary

Introduction

‘Social privacy’ concerns how an individual manages self-disclosures, availability, and access to information about themselves by other people when using social-driven applications [1] Those concerns are more profound on Geo-Social Networks (GeoSNs)- online social networks with location-sharing facilities—as spatiotemporal user tracks; derived from disclosed location traces, can be used to create detailed user profiles that describe people’s interactions in space and time [2]. This paper contributes a more detailed study that considers awareness with respect to extended user profiles on the space, time and social dimensions and provides an understanding of how users’ perception of their location content influences their privacy concerns and behaviour on GeoSNs. User studies, in the form of online surveys, are carried out.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion