Path Hiding for Privacy Enhancement in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Active-safety features in vehicles are enabled by a multitude of different kinds of sensors such as acceleration sensors, radars, or cameras. Apart from the systems which use these sensors also service providers are interested in the data produced by these sensors and the corresponding geographical position. These data can be utilized for instance in order to, e.g., increase the quality of street maps data for automated driving. However, a service provider may also abuse this information to create precise movement profiles of the vehicles. In order to prevent a provider from creating such profiles, we introduce path hiding strategies for vehicles equipped with vehicle-to- vehicle (V2V) communication. This approach is a powerful means to protect the privacy of the driver. We propose in the sequel two strategies on how to exchange the data for privacy enhancement. For assessment purposes, we compare the efficiency of our strategies by means of simulation and evaluate their results from a large application scenario. Furthermore, we give a recommendation on the best strategy. Conclusively, we demonstrate that the approach of exchanging sensor readings with other vehicles prior to an upload operation prevents the creation of movement profiles by a central entity such as a service provider.