Privacy-Aware Location Tracking for Emergency Services in Smart Transportation Systems

Abstract: In today’s rapidly evolving smart transportation systems, accurately tracking locations during emergencies is essential for ensuring timely and effective responses. However, this critical requirement introduces significant concerns regarding user privacy, particularly due to the highly sensitive nature of location data. Addressing this pressing challenge, this paper aims to develop and rigorously evaluate privacy-aware mechanisms for location tracking explicitly tailored for emergency services. The proposed solution integrates advanced cryptographic techniques alongside secure data-sharing protocols to balance the urgent need for precise tracking with the equally important requirement of robust privacy protections. Through a comprehensive combination of theoretical analysis and practical implementation, the findings of this study convincingly demonstrate that it is indeed possible to achieve both high accuracy in location tracking and enhanced privacy. This dual achievement offers a viable and effective path for developing smart transportation systems. These results contribute significantly to the expanding knowledge surrounding privacy preservation within emergency services. Moreover, they provide valuable and practical insights for policymakers, system designers, and engineers focused on shaping the future of smart cities. The proposed mechanisms have the potential to establish new standards in the field, ensuring that the benefits of smart transportation systems are fully realized without compromising the privacy and security of the individuals they are intended to serve.