Giving location permission to a website or app can be a threat to your privacy, but a new cryptographic technique by Swiss scientists can protect you from this. Whether it is a website or an app, they often ask for location permission, and you permit it because access is necessary. Most people consider it normal or mandatory. But after this, your device's location reaches that company or person, and they can trace you at their convenience.

This is extremely sensitive and, if misused, it sometimes has serious consequences. To prevent these threats, scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Switzerland have developed a special technique based on a cryptographic system, which allows verifying your location by hiding the exact location. TUM recently presented it at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 'Symposium on Security and Privacy-2025.

What is the technology?

This is a cryptographic technique that allows a person to prove that he is present at a place (such as a city, area, or township), but does not allow his exact location to be revealed. It mainly consists of two things: Zero Knowledge Proof and the Hexagonal Grid System. Zero Knowledge Proof is a kind of mathematical method, which hides the original information and only tells that the information is correct. At the same time, the Hexagonal Grid System is a kind of map that divides an area into small hexagons. With this, a place can be represented with accurate information at different levels.

How does it work

In this, first, your location is converted into a grid, that is, with the help of several hexagonal grids, your city is divided into different small parts. With this, the user's device location is identified not from any place but from the grid system. If you are present in a colony or township within a city, then the grid system will not show the exact location of your device to the person in front, but will show something like grid X-123. The zero-knowledge proof algorithm hides your exact location, due to which only the common locations around are known to the person in front, that is, it will be known in which market of the city you are, but which showroom or restaurant you are in, this will not be traced.

Calculation in 0.26 seconds
This entire process happens very fast. Cryptographic technology calculates your device's location accurately in just 0.26 seconds based on the grid. The special thing is that instead of integers, floating-point numbers (i.e., up to many places after the decimal) are used for calculation. This number is highly accurate, due to which your exact location cannot be reached by the person in front, even by mistake.

Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.