Abstract
A method is described for tracing geolocation data leaks by watermarking coordinates provided by a geolocation application programming interface. The method can involve generating a watermark, for example, by applying a cryptographic hash function to inputs such as the requesting origin's domain and the most significant digits of a user's latitude and longitude. This hash may then be embedded into the less significant decimal places of the coordinates, which can result in a small alteration to the location data before it is provided to the origin. A benefit of this technique is to facilitate the attribution of leaked data. By analyzing third-party datasets for the presence of these origin-specific watermarks, it may be possible to identify a potential source of a data leak, which can inform privacy-preserving actions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Berke, Alex; Engedy, Balazs; Bacis, Enrico; and Syed, Umar, "Origin-Specific Coordinate Watermarking for Geolocation Data Leak Attribution", Technical Disclosure Commons, (October 17, 2025)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/8738