Location-spoofing detection system for a network service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10999299-B2
Application number	US-201816155382-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 9, 2018
Priority date	Oct 9, 2018
Publication date	May 4, 2021
Grant date	May 4, 2021

Abstract

A computing system can receive, over one or more networks, location data from the computing devices of user as the user operate throughout a region. For each user, the computing system can determine whether the user is operating a location-spoofing application on the computing device of the user based, at least in part, on the location data received from the computing device of the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
a network communication interface to communicate, over one or more networks, with computing devices of users in a region;
one or more processors; and
one or more memory resources storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:
receive, over the one or more networks, location data from the computing devices, each of the computing devices operating a designated application associated with the computing system;
determine, by the computing system, whether a computing device of a respective user is running a location-spoofing application that is different than the designated application based, at least in part, on the location data received from the computing device of the respective user; and
in response to determining that the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application, input a demerit in a driver profile of the respective user, the demerit affecting at least one of a driver rating or a compensation of the respective user.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the computing system to:
determine, based on the location data received from the computing device, a set of locational attributes of the respective user, the set of locational attributes comprising at least one of a position, a velocity, an acceleration, or an elevation of the respective user.

3. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the executed instructions cause the computing system to determine whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application by applying a location-based feasibility model to the set of locational attributes.

4. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the location-based feasibility model outputs a determination of whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application.

5. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein the location-based feasibility model outputs a probability that the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application.

6. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the executed instructions cause the computing system to determine whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application by running the set of locational attributes through a set of computational rules that output a determination of whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application.

7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the set of computational rules comprises a point-to-point computation indicating whether the velocity of the respective user exceeds a feasibility threshold.

8. The computing system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a database storing sets of driving profiles for various road segments of the region;
wherein the executed instructions cause the computing system to determine whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application by (i) performing a lookup in the database for a matching driving profile corresponding to a road segment traveled by the respective user as indicated by the location data received from the computing device of the respective user, and (ii) comparing the locational attributes of the respective user with the matching driving profile.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein each driving profile in the stored sets of driving profiles indicates a minimum feasible time to drive from a start point to an end point of a road segment corresponding to the driving profile.

10. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the computing system implements an on-demand transport service for the region, wherein the users comprise transport providers of the on-demand transport service, and wherein the network communication interface further communicates with computing devices of requesters of the on-demand transport service.

11. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the computing system to:
receive, over the one or more networks, transport requests from the computing devices of the requesters, each transport request indicating a rendezvous location; and
for each received transport request, determine, based on (i) the location data received from the computing devices of the users and (ii) the rendezvous location indicated in the transport request, a pool of candidate users to service the transport request.

12. The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the computing system to:
select, from the pool of candidate users, an optimal user to service the transport request; and
transmit, over the one or more wireless networks, a transport invitation to the computing device of the optimal user, the transport invitation enabling the optimal user to accept and service the transport request.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the executed instructions cause the computing system to select the optimal user in response to determining that the optimal user is not operating a location-spoofing application.

14. The computing system of claim 11 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the computing system to:
in response to determining that a given user in the pool of candidate users is operating a location-spoofing application, exclude the given user from the pool of candidate users.

15. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the executed instructions further cause the computing system to:
in response to determining that the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application, exclude the respective user from matching operations in which users are matched with requesters to provider on-demand transport services.

16. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the location-spoofing application comprises a third-party global positioning system (GPS) spoofing application.

17. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the executed instructions cause the computing system to determine whether the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application by executing a motion simulation based on the location data received from the computing device of the respective user.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to:
communicate, over one or more networks, with computing devices of users operating throughout a region;
receive, over the one or more networks, location data from the computing devices, each of the computing devices operating a designated application associated with an application service;
determine, by the computing system, whether a computing device of a respective user is running a location-spoofing application that is different than the designated application based, at least in part, on the location data received from the computing device of the respective user; and
in response to determining that the respective user is operating a location-spoofing application, exclude the respective user from matching operations in which users are matched with requesters to provide on-demand transport services.

19. A computer-implemented method of detecting location-spoofing, the method being performed by one or more processors of a computing system and comprising:
communicating, over one or more networks, with computing devices of users operating throughout a region;
receiving, over the one or more networks, location data from the computing devices, each of the computing devices operating a designated application associated with an application servi

Assignees

• Uber Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Yang Sheng
• Huang Ze
• Wang Qiao
• Dytang David Spenser
• Amiri Kiarash
• Mitchell Tara Michelle
• Cai Xiao

Classifications

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W12/63

  Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent · CPC title

• H04W12/12 Primary

  Detection or prevention of fraud · CPC title

• H04L67/52

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title