Geofence areas where to not create reports

[Mikaela]

Description

I would like to specify locations within X (kilo)metres of which NeoStumbler wouldn't generate reports and thus it wouldn't submit data to wherever I was submitting it.

Suggested implementation

I don't know, some sort of menu where to add locations and possibly display a map to show the concrete area. See e.g. Google Maps offline download zones?

Additional information

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geofence
• Briefly discussed at BeaconDB Matrix room with request of not submitting reports from home.
  • https://matrix.to/#/%21rgcVclkrrFiLdpQftu%3Amatrix.org/%24hbngH68DAJXCbBDW6bpWjFHg2lv_wtqbPfqUn9mx4s8?via=matrix.org&via=tchncs.de&via=mozilla.org

New request

• I have checked that a similar feature hasn't been requested yet

[spaetz]

Ideally with a fuzzy border, otherwise you get e.g. a nice clear circle of non-observations which reveals the center of your geofence.

[mjaakko]

Ideally with a fuzzy border, otherwise you get e.g. a nice clear circle of non-observations which reveals the center of your geofence.

Very good point. This feature will need some planning

One idea would be to randomly discard a portion of data collected inside the defined area. Then there wouldn't be an obvious gap in the data nor a hotspot which could reveal your location

[tcpipuk]

I'd say it'd be reasonable to add a hard border as a first implementation then evolve the feature over time, especially as most of the services I've tried (e.g. beacondb.net) don't currently identify individual users to assist identifying dead zones.

From a privacy standpoint, including a basic version of the feature would be much better than having nothing, then there's lots of other possible ways to go in the future, like fuzzing time as well as distance to decide when to pause generating reports.