Participatory Sensing is an emerging computing paradigm that enables thedistributed collection of data by self-selected participants. It allows theincreasing number of mobile phone users to share local knowledge acquired bytheir sensor-equipped devices, e.g., to monitor temperature, pollution level orconsumer pricing information. While research initiatives and prototypesproliferate, their real-world impact is often bounded to comprehensive userparticipation. If users have no incentive, or feel that their privacy might beendangered, it is likely that they will not participate. In this article, wefocus on privacy protection in Participatory Sensing and introduce a suitableprivacy-enhanced infrastructure. First, we provide a set of definitions ofprivacy requirements for both data producers (i.e., users providing sensedinformation) and consumers (i.e., applications accessing the data). Then, wepropose an efficient solution designed for mobile phone users, which incursvery low overhead. Finally, we discuss a number of open problems and possibleresearch directions.
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