Privacy risk in GeoData: A survey

With the ubiquitous use of location-based services, large-scale individual-level location data has been widely collected through location-awareness devices. The exposure of location data constitutes a significant privacy risk to users as it can lead to de-anonymisation, the inference of sensitive information, and even physical threats. Geoprivacy concerns arise on the issues of user identity de-anonymisation and location exposure. In this survey, we analyse different geomasking techniques that have been proposed to protect the privacy of individuals in geodata. We present a taxonomy to characterise these techniques along different dimensions, and conduct a survey of geomasking techniques. We then highlight shortcomings of current techniques and discuss avenues for future research.