Privacy Solution Found for Location-Aware Devices

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The IoT market is experiencing an explosion of GPS-based location-aware devices. However, security and privacy have become serious and significant concerns for consumers of the devices and technology companies that manufacture these products. In the past few months, there has been news of a ban on children’s smartwatches in Germany due to privacy concerns, as well as concerns regarding sensitive military troop locations having gone public due to the Strava fitness tracking app.  

GPSip addresses the public’s security concerns associated with these location-aware wearable devices. Its autonomous geo-fencing SkyShepherd technology allows for the location and status computing to occur on the device. So, there is no need to transmit the actual Latitude and Longitude information of an individual wearing the device.

The system allows containment areas (geo-fences) in complex shapes to be created with progressive alert zones to be monitored and contained. The containment zone, alert zones, and other zone values are stored at the “edge” directly on the devices using very little memory and processor time. As the location-aware device receives location information, it autonomously checks the onboard map to determine its status, and acts, if needed, according to roboticstomorrow.com.

Since the status processing happens locally, the device only needs to communicate when there is a problem or to give infrequent updates when things are good. Not having to transmit location information greatly increases security, according to the company.