Privacy enhanced location verification for improved transaction security

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed in a data processing system, causes the data processing system to implement a privacy enhanced location service that operates to:

• receive, from a requestor computing device, a location query requesting location information for a subject;
• retrieve a selected subject privacy policy data structure, selected from a set of subject privacy policy data structures corresponding to the subject identified in the location query;
• apply the selected subject privacy policy data structure to location information associated with the subject to generate modified location information having a granularity of location information specified in the selected subject privacy policy data structure;
• and
• transmit the modified location information to the requestor computing device, wherein the selected subject privacy policy data structure comprises at least one negotiation limit criterion specifying a limit to increasing a specificity of the location information in response to an automated negotiation operation between the data processing system and the requestor computing device, and wherein applying the selected subject privacy policy data structure comprises executing an automated negotiation operation between the data processing system and the requestor computing device based on the at least one negotiation limit criterion.

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to implement a privacy enhanced location service that operates to:
• receive, from a requestor computing device, a location query requesting location information for a subject;
• retrieve a selected subject privacy policy data structure, selected from a set of subject privacy policy data structures corresponding to the subject identified in the location query;
• apply the selected subject privacy policy data structure to location information associated with the subject to generate modified location information having a granularity of location information specified in the selected subject privacy policy data structure;
• and
• transmit the modified location information to the requestor computing device, wherein the selected subject privacy policy data structure comprises at least one negotiation limit criterion specifying a limit to increasing a specificity of the location information in response to an automated negotiation operation between the data processing system and the requestor computing device, and wherein applying the selected subject privacy policy data structure comprises executing an automated negotiation operation between the data processing system and the requestor computing device based on the at least one negotiation limit criterion.