New project on exploring anonymity in movement trajectories

Dr. Jennifer Miller has received funding from UT’s Center for Identity for a new project that explores how anonymous  movement trajectories are based on GPS locations from smartphones. Location data are often released after they have been ‘anonymized’—which means that the trajectory has been stripped of any obvious

Microsoft GeoLife trajectories in Beijing
Microsoft GeoLife trajectories in Beijing 

identifying information such as name, address, phone number, etc. However, personal points of interest (home, work) can be easily identified by mining trajectory data for movement patterns, and these points of interest are often associated with unique individuals. This project will explore privacy issues associated with smartphone location data using a computational movement analysis framework.