Untraceable communication for location-based services

The necessity for anonymous and untraceable communication exists in numerous ICT applications and location-based services that require user location data for their operations. Disclosing the locations and positions where people are situated, in some cases over long time intervals or even on a continuous basis, is by many considered invasive and infringement of personal privacy. Privacy-preserving methods are a promising means to protect user privacy in many applications. Untraceability is central privacy property in which the trace (or link) between an object as it moves from one location to another cannot be certainly established. For a person using a GPS-based application, untraceability implies that links between a person and that person’s changing locations cannot be certainly established. We discuss in the report the state of the art of untraceable anonymous communication methods. Further, we assess the research and market opportunities, and present ideas for future projects and proposals.