Systems and Methods for Privacy-Reserving Data Hiding

A system for encrypting location data associated with a computing device into a code vector to hide the location data, the system comprising:

• a database;
• an application executing on a mobile computing device, wherein the application:
• converts time and location information associated with the location data of the mobile computing device into a vector format;
• generates the code vector based on the converted time and location information using a linear or non-linear transformation;
• sorts entries in the code vector based at least in part on a predetermined ordering scheme;
• executes a random modification to each of the sorted entries;
• and
• transmits the code vector to one or more servers;
• wherein the one or more servers are programmed to:
• compare the code vector to at least one other code vector associated with at least one other computing device;
• determine a distance between the code vector and at least one other code vector;
• and
• determine, based on the distance, whether the computing device and the at least one second computing device were in proximity to each other during a time period corresponding to the time information.

A device for encrypting location data associated with a computing device into a code vector to hide the location data, the device comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions therein, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the processors to perform the operations of:

• converting time and location information associated with the location data of the computing device into a vector format;
• generating the code vector based on the converted time and location vector using a linear or non-linear transformation;
• sorting entries in the code vector based at least in part on a predetermined ordering scheme;
• executing a random modification to each of the sorted entries;
• comparing the code vector to at least one other code vector associated with at least one other computing device;
• determining a distance between the code vector and at least one other code vector;
• and
• determining, based on the determined distance, whether the computing device and the at least one second computing device were in proximity to each other during a time period corresponding to the time information.