Method and system of enforcing privacy policies for mobile sensory devices

An image handling device including:

• an image capturing device;
• one or more applications able to utilize images from the image capturing device;
• memory storing instructions, that when interpreted by a processor instantiate a system layer logically disposed between the image capturing device and the one or more applications such that images captured by the image capturing device must pass through the system layer prior to being made available to the one or more applications;
• the system layer including:
• an image classifier operable to:
• obtain, based on a geospatial location of the image handling device, a plurality of known images for the geospatial location;
• and
• determine a classification of a captured image, from a plurality of captured images, based on comparing the captured image to the plurality of known images and using a probabilistic model based on a chronological sequence of the plurality of captured images, wherein each of the plurality of captured images has a corresponding determined location within the geospatial location;
• an image policy enforcer operable to apply a plurality of image policy rules to the captured image based on the classification of the captured image by the image classifier, at least one image policy rule including an action to be taken for the captured image that matches the at least one image policy rule, and a sensitivity value associated with the geospatial location;
• the image policy enforcer operable to choose the action based on the at least one image policy rule between:
• 1) making the captured image freely available to the one or more applications;
• 2) making the captured image or portion of the captured image unavailable to applications;
• and
• 3) holding the captured image and requiring explicit approval from a user prior to making the captured image available to the one or more applications.

A non-transitory computer readable media including instructions thereon that, when interpreted by a processor, cause the processor to:

• obtaining, based on a geospatial location of a computing device coupled to an image collection device, a known set of images for the geospatial location;
• compare a plurality of captured images to the known set of images to determine a plurality of corresponding determined locations within the geospatial location;
• and
• apply a classification upon a captured image, from the plurality of captured images, based upon a corresponding determined location, from the plurality of corresponding determined locations, associated with the captured image and whether the corresponding determined location indicates that the image has a potential to depict privacy sensitive information,
• wherein the applying the classification is based on using a scoring function that evaluates a similarity between the captured image and the known set of images and a probabilistic model that is based on a chronological sequence of the plurality of captured images and the plurality of corresponding determined locations associated with the chronological sequence.