Preserving Location Privacy in the Modern Era of Pervasive Environments.

The rapid expansion of location-based services gives rise to significant security and privacy apprehensions. While these services deliver convenience, they accentuate concerns regarding widespread location tracking via web services, mobile apps, IoT devices, and autonomous vehicles. In this study, we comprehensively assess the merits and constraints of prevalent techniques in location privacy protection, including spatial-temporal cloaking, k-anonymity, differential privacy, and encryption. Furthermore, we delve into emerging applications like intelligent traffic planning and virus contact tracing which introduce novel complexities to the pursuit of robust location privacy safeguards.