Location-Related Privacy in Geo-Social Networks

Geo-social networks (GeoSNs) provide context-aware services that help associate location with users and content. The proliferation of GeoSNs indicates that they\´re rapidly attracting users. GeoSNs currently offer different types of services, including photo sharing, friend tracking, and "check-ins." However, this ability to reveal users\´ locations causes new privacy threats, which in turn call for new privacy-protection methods. The authors study four privacy aspects central to these social networks - location, absence, co-location, and identity privacy - and describe possible means of protecting privacy in these circumstances.