GPS Mobile Phones: the Privacy and Regulatory Issues

ARCchart, February 2008, Pages: 80

Annual shipments of GPS-enabled phones will grow rapidly over the period 2008-2012. The author predicts that by 2012, GPS phones will account for 37% of all shipments (535 million).The number of users of mobile location services accessed via GPS phones is also expected to grow strongly. The report predicts that by 2012 the worldwide user base of the most popular location-enabled services, navigation and mobile social networking, will reach 150 and 127 million respectively. This growth in the availability of handset location information (LI) raises many questions about the degree to which users can be protected from potential abuses of their LI.

In this report, the author examines the market for GPS phones, location finding techniques, legal and regulatory implications of GPS phones and technologies available for managing location privacy. The author’s analysis of the emerging LBS market reveals that there is a potential for serious abuses of location privacy in cases where the use of location information has not been adequately regulated.

Topics of coverage include:
- A review of positioning technologies that allow handsets to be located
- Descriptions of the main types of LBS applications: personal security, navigation, education & gaming, enterprise, social networking, commerce and Government
- Analysis of the legal, regulatory and technological mechanisms available for the protection of location privacy
- Examination of existing government regulation in selected countries/regions
- Discussion of various industry initiatives and codes of practice
- Recommendations for regulators, operators and LBS providers to ensure protection of personal location information
- Forecasts for annual GPS phone shipment and total installed base of GPS handsets
- Forecast for user numbers of the main types of LBS applications

Answers and opinions are provided with respect to the following essential questions:
- How will GPS handset volumes grow over the coming years?
- What is the significance of active and passive location services?
- How is handset location accuracy set to evolve?
- Why is it important that location privacy regulation is not restricted to operators?
- What are the location applications which have the biggest implications for privacy?
- How is E911, E112, eCall and ELRS affecting the GPS phone market?
- What are the techniques for managing location privacy?
- How effective has industry self-regulation been?
- Why should a piecemeal approach to regulation be avoided?

A. INTRODUCTION TO GPS PHONES
A.1 Introduction
A.2 Drivers for GPS phones
E911
E112 and eCall
A.3 How GPS works
Technical features
GPS Ephemeris and Almanac
C/A code
P(Y) code
Navigation Message
Differential GPS (DGPS)
A.4 Future GPS developments
IIR-M and IIF
GPS III
A.5 Other GPS-type networks
Galileo
Galileo navigation systems
GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System)
QZSS - Japan
Compass - China
IRNSS - India
A.6 Cellular location technologies
A.7 Assisted GPS
GPS Mobile Phones: the Privacy and Regulatory Issues
A-GPS standards
Cellular/A-GPS hybrids
A.8 Other location techniques
Cell tower databases
Wi-Fi location finding
RFID and Bluetooth
A.9 GPS receiver design
Qualcomm gpsOne.
Single chip GPS from TI
Global Locate and Infineon
GPS SIM from BlueSky Positioning
A.10 GPS phone examples
Examples of specialist GPS ‘phones’.
A.11 Handset implementations of LBS
Java
Windows Mobile
Symbian
BREW
Browser.
A.12 Network location platforms
Open Location Standards
Examples of location platform products

B. PRIVACY IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMON LBS APPLICATIONS
B.1 Market background for LBS
B.2 Active and passive services
B.3 Abuse of location information
B.4 Personal security
Roadside Assistance
Weather Warning
Child Finders
E 911 /E112
Healthcare
GeoFencing
B.5 Gaming/Education
Interactive Gaming
GeoCaching.
B.6 Enterprise
Fleet Management/ Asset Monitoring
Personnel Productivity
Customer Service
Lone worker protection
B.7 Navigation
City Guides
Mobile Yellow Pages
Turn-by-turn navigation
Traffic reroute
B.8 Social networking
Buddy Groups
Dating
Geo-tagging and blogging
B.9 Commerce
Mobile Coupons.
Location Based Billing
B.10 Government
Homeland Security.
Military
B.11 Summary

C. MANAGING LOCATION PRIVACY
C.1 Legal and regulatory approaches
International regulation – OECD
EU directives
Extract From the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 EC Directive 42
GPS Mobile Phones: the Privacy and Regulatory Issues
National legislation and regulation
China
Japan
UK
US
C.2 National industry self-regulation
China
Japan
UK
Child location services
Adult/friend location services
Mobile games supported by location services
Corporate location services
Summary
US
CTIA Location Privacy Principles
C.3 Techniques for managing location privacy
Consent
Anonymization
Spatial cloaking
Temporal cloaking
Location perturbation
Pseudonyms
Information-minimizing
User privacy profiles

D. RECOMMENDATIONS
D.1 Regulation and self-regulation
Technology neutrality
Avoid piecemeal regulation
Emergency calling
Codes of practice
Passive services
D.2 Service Design
Privacy by design
Users in control
User interfaces.
User education
Moderate UGC

E. MARKET FORECASTS
E.1 Forecasts for GPS phone volumes
E.2 Forecasts for selected location-enabled applications

List of Figures
Figure A-1: Constellation of 31 medium earth orbit GPS satellites
Figure A-2: Nokia N95 GPS phone
Figure A-3: Motorola/ Nextel i580 ruggedised GPS phone
Figure A-4: The MobiCare GPS phone and monitoring device from Argyll Telecom
Figure A-5: The MaxCare location and alerting device from Argyll Telecom
Figure A-6: LG Migo GPS phone aimed at young children
Figure A-7: Role of the GeoMobility Server
Figure A-8: Architecture of the GeoMobility Server
Figure A-9: Openwave Location Manager: Commercial Edition
Figure A-10: Openwave Location Manager: Emergency Edition (GSM)
Figure A-11: Xypoint Location Platform from TCS
Figure C-1: LBS anonymization function
Figure E-1: GPS phone shipments 2008-12 - worldwide
Figure E-2: GPS phone shipments 2008-12 - by region
Figure E-3: Total installed base of GPS phones in use 2008-12 - worldwide
Figure E-4: Total installed base of GPS phones in use 2008-12 - by region
Figure E-5: Users of location-enabled personal security applications 2008-12
Figure E-6: Users of location-enabled gaming applications 2008-12
Figure E-7: Users of location-enabled enterprise applications 2008-12
Figure E-8: Users of location-enabled navigation applications 2008-12
Figure E-9: Users of location-enabled social networking applications 2008-12
Figure E-10: Users of location-enabled commerce applications 2008-12

List of Tables
Table A-1: Summary of GPS frequency bands
Table A-2: GPS error sources
Table A-3: Comparison of mobile location methods
Table A-4: Comparison of GPS modes
Table A-5: GPS performance metrics for GSM and CDMA assisted GPS
Table B-1: Use of location information in different LBS applications
Table C-1: OECD guidelines on data privacy

- 3 UK
- Argyll Telecom
- BlueSky Positioning
- Cellfire
- CityNeo
- CTIA (US)
- European Commission (EC)
- European Space Agency
- FCC
- followGB
- FollowUS
- Global Locate
- Google
- Helio
- Infineon
- KDDI
- LG
- MeetMoi
- Microsoft
- Ministry of Information and Industry (China)
- Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)
- Mobile Commerce
- Mobile Marketing Association
- Mobiqa
- Motorola
- Navizon
- Network in Motion
- NeuStar
- Nokia
- O2
- OECD
- Ofcom (UK)
- Open Geospatial Consortium
- Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)
- Openwave
- Orange
- Orbis
- Ordnance Survey
- PCCW Directories
- Qualcomm
- RealReplay
- Shozu
- Skyhook
- Sprint Nextel
- Symbian
- TCS
- Tele Atlas
- TeleNav
- TI
- The Location Company
- The Shroud
- Trueposition
- UpGrade InTouch
- Verisign
- Verizon
- Vodafone
- WaveMarkets
- WeatherBug

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