opengsmloc

About

Project Description

OpenLoc is an open-source project that creates a privacy-preserving location estimation system which turns crowd-sourced observations on wireless networks into freely available location data. OpenLoc works with multiple mobile network technologies (GSM, 3G, Wireless LAN) and is available for several mobile platforms.

While designing OpenLoc, our main objectives were:

Privacy: OpenLoc uses anonymised data about geographical network coverage only and stores no data from individual users. No logs are kept, so any contribution to the network location repository is completely private. This makes server-side user tracking and location prediction impossible, even if the entire database is data-mined. OpenLoc’s architecture is open for 3rd party anonymisation and location cloacking services. Thus users don’t even have to trust any OpenLoc service provider.

Crowd-Sourcing: To remain up-to-date OpenLoc relies on contributions from a community of people who gather network coverage data together with GPS data around the world. The unique design of OpenLoc’s central location estimation algorithm ensures that the privacy of collected data remains protected. Collected network data can be published to a central repository at the discretion of the collector or be kept private for personal use only.

Free: OpenLoc is and will remain free of cost for non-commercial use. We believe that the data that has been collected by a community of users should remain in the possession of those users and not become private property of a company.

Open Source: All OpenLoc source code, API’s and databases are available AS IS to the public under the XXX license. OpenLoc clients run on many mobile platforms and everyone is welcome to contribute alternative implementations. In addition, everyone can run his own private location estimation service

History & Literature

Coming soon…

Features

• location estimation algorithms found in the literature
• a privacy preserving location estimation algorithm based on location areas
• network fingerprint collection clients for Android, Symbian and OpenMoko
• a database/repository for location area storage

TODO Items

This list contains items that should be worked on. It is meant for us to keep track of things and for interested community developers to pick a topic of interest. The list is non-exhaustive.

• develop a live location estimation server
• develop client applications/libraries for simple access
  • design an aging/decay scheme for area
  • shrink areas at certain frequency (adapt to technology, update and usage) and by certain amount (adapt to technology and area size
  • use last-access/update timestamps and per aging-period access/update counts
• improve API (what is lacking?)
• make API/implementation robust and secure
• develop a quality assurance procedure for updates
• can be statistical (not knowing or trusting users) or community-based (trusted users doing wardriving)

Interested? Find out how to get involved