Quantifying mobility of mobile devices via a privacy preserving mobility metric

摘要

Embodiments of the invention generate metrics quantifying the mobility of a mobile device without persisting information related to the device's specific location at any given time. Specifically, at multiple intervals, a value of a mobility metric is computed based on the distance between the current location of the mobile device and a previously identified origin location of the mobile device. The values of the mobility metric computed over a period of time quantify the overall mobility of the mobile device. The mobility metric does not provide any information regarding the specific location of the mobile device at any given time.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
determining an origin location of the mobile device from a location of the mobile device; determining a location of the mobile device at each of a plurality of points in time; computing, at the mobile device, at least one value of a mobility metric based at least in part on a first delta distance between the origin and a first determined location at a first point in time and on a second delta distance between the origin and a second determined location at a second point in time, the mobility metric indicating how frequently the mobile device travels from the origin location; transmitting the at least one value of the mobility metric from the mobile device to a server system, wherein the mobility metric does not provide any information regarding the determined locations of the mobile device at any of the plurality of points in time; and receiving, responsive to the transmitted mobility metric, customized content at the mobile device, the customized content customized for the mobile device based at least in part on the at least one value of the mobility metric, regardless of the location of the mobile device at each of the plurality of points in time.