Resources
- Identity Use Cases & Scenarios.
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- IDIS Journal.
- FIDIS Interactive.
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- In-House Journal.
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- Identity in a Networked World.
- Identity R/Evolution.
D11.2: Mobility and LBS
Introduction
LBS can be considered more complex compared to “classic” mobile communicational relationships. This is due to the increased number of workflows and thus communication partners being involved. Depending on how data is collected, processed, stored, and used, there may be different impacts on identity. Again, the influence or control over workflows and policies is a critical factor for the impact of these services on identity, as initially described in D11.1
Location and service data can (potentially) be used, by applying profiling methods, such as those that are used for marketing purposes. In these cases, the user of such services may receive additional partial identities, which are derived from the data his profile is built of.
In this chapter we will use the understanding of partial identities described in FIDIS deliverable D2.1 and D11.1.
In general, the relations between the communicating parties relate to the number and the roles of parties and the used workflows. In LBS use cases, they are usually more complex, than in the initial mobile use cases, that had been analysed in D11.1, chapter 3 (Royer, 2005). Therefore there are at least four potential roles to discriminate:
Data subject (This is the user of the mobile phone that is located) or data object (location of for example a vehicle, container or a point of interest such as a restaurant). In some cases a data object that is tracked by an LBS is linked to a specific person
Mobile communication provider (provides – as far as no network-external location service such as GPS is used – the location data concerning the mobile phone requesting an LBS to the Location Based Service provider.)
LBS provider (provides the additional service using the location data of the data subject or object and matches them with a geo database)
LBS user (uses the LBS)
When analysing the influence of LBS on identity we naturally are interested in data subjects, not data objects. Location data typically is not acquired for subjects directly, but for specific objects such as a mobile phone or a special tracking device for example composed of a GPS locator and a communication device. In these cases the link between the object that is located and a corresponding subject is of high interest. Most LBS such as friend finders or kid tracking services base on the assumption, that a device is linked to exactly one person and that this link is very robust, e.g. that the device usually stays with the person.
LBS Usage scenarios show a big variety. This also holds for the roles involved. In many cases some of the four roles introduced above can be taken by one person or organisation simultaneously. An example for this is the use of mobile navigation, where data subject and LBS user can be the same entity.
With regard to the activity and initiative of the parties, typically two types of LBS are used:
Pull services: in this case each transaction of the location based service is initiated by the user and the corresponding service data is returned to him.
Push services: in this case the transactions of the location based service concerning a data subject or a user are initiated by a third party (maybe after the data subject or user had initially ordered the service).
As described in D11.1, three factors are having the highest influence on partial identities:
Data including an identifier (especially in its function as address for communication)
The workflows or processes, in which identity data and the identifier can be used
The context-dependent policy on how to use the identifier in which workflows or processes
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