Problem: Currently, users (or attackers) can easily manipulate the location provided to an app on a phone.
Solution: Use raw measurements from positioning sattellites to check if the location reported by a user actually lines up with the measurements of their phone.
Why is it hard?
- Lack of documentation, standardization and support on collecting raw measurements on phones.
- Processing raw measurements is tricky
- Finding anomalies in this raw data is even harder
Some of it is working - yay! - and there's also a public API, such that others can use it too: https://claimr.tools
Hmm, I see your concern. I'm pretty big on privacy myself, so I feel I should be able to answer this in a satisfying way.
Most importantly, this always requires the user's concent. On Android you still need the same location permissions as for normal GPS location positioning. Hence, as a user you're always free to reject location permissions same as before.
I have to admit, this tech can also be used for evil purposes. For now, not all phones support collecting raw measurements - either hardware or software support is lacking, but in the future if some entity could force you to have your location verified, then having you cannot lie about it anymore.
Problem: Currently, users (or attackers) can easily manipulate the location provided to an app on a phone.
Solution: Use raw measurements from positioning sattellites to check if the location reported by a user actually lines up with the measurements of their phone.
Why is it hard? - Lack of documentation, standardization and support on collecting raw measurements on phones. - Processing raw measurements is tricky - Finding anomalies in this raw data is even harder
Some of it is working - yay! - and there's also a public API, such that others can use it too: https://claimr.tools