Current localization methods on social platforms predominantly rely on distance mapping, which necessitates extensive queries to identify critical thresholds. However, as platforms continually strengthen their location obfuscation mechanisms, distance-based approaches struggle to accurately characterize the perturbation patterns, resulting in a significant drop in localization accuracy. A Soul user geolocation method based on direction constraint and double fan-shaped ring intersection is proposed. First, an omni-directional and multi-range virtual probe deployment strategy is designed, which adaptively sets multi-level radial sampling radii according to the display granularity of platform distance, thereby efficiently acquiring non-redundant mapping data. On this basis, the azimuth is incorporated into location modeling to construct a location bandwidth model considering both distance and azimuth. Fan-shaped annular regions are generated from two distinct observation points, and the geometric centroid of their intersection is used as the final user location estimate. Experiments on Soul show the minimum, average and maximum localization errors of 9.01, 29.87 and 57.66 m, respectively. Compared with 3 typical methods, the maximum reductions of the 3 aforementioned errors using the proposed method can reach 71.78%, 57.12% and 43.16%, respectively.
基于位置的社交服务(Location-Based Social Services, LBSD)在显著提升用户社交体验的同时,也带来了潜在的安全风险[1]。近年来,Facebook、Twitter、微信、Soul等主流社交平台广泛集成“附近的人”“地理签到”等功能[2],通过本地化社交吸引用户持续活跃,并产生海量位置数据[3-5]。其中,Soul是近年来广受欢迎的交友类社交网络平台,截至2025年8月,其累计注册用户数约3.89亿。该平台提供的LBSD服务“奇遇铃”在提高社交体验的同时,也被恶意用户用于交友诈骗等违法活动。因此,研究Soul平台的用户定位技术,对于执法机构在非协作条件下精准识别恶意用户[6-7]、保护普通用户隐私[8-9]、推动平台优化隐私保护机制[10-11]等方面具有重要的现实意义。
XINGL, LIB, LIUL L, et al. Trajectory privacy protection method based on sensitive semantic location replacement[J]. Computer Networks, 2024,250: No.110562.
[2]
SHIY Y, SHIW Q, LUOX Y, et al. Echoes of movement: a line user geolocation method based on probe position adaptive adjustment[C]//Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks. Piscataway, USA: IEEE, 2025:172-181.
[3]
HUANGM S, NARAYANANR M. Trilateration-based localization algorithm using the lemoine point formulation[J]. IETE Journal of Research, 2014,60(1):60-73.
[4]
LIUR T, LIR X, SHIW Q, et al. UeLP: accurate user linkage across social platforms against location errors[J]. The Computer Journal, 2025,68(3):228-240.
[5]
SCHNITZLERT, KOHLSK, BITSIKASE, et al. Hope of delivery: extracting user locations from mobile instant messengers[C]//Proceedings of the 2023 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium. San Diego, USA. Internet Society, 2023. DOI:10.14722/ndss.2023.23188 .
[6]
VENÂNCIOO R, FERREIRAC H G, ALMEIDAJ M, et al. Unraveling user coordination on telegram: a comprehensive analysis of political mobilization during the 2022 Brazilian presidential election[C]//Proceedings of the 18th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Washington, USA: AAAI Press, 2024,18:1545-1556.
[7]
LINT L, CHANGH Y, LIS L. A location privacy attack based on the location sharing mechanism with erroneous distance in geosocial networks[J]. Sensors, 2020,20(3):No.918.
[8]
XUEM H, LIUY, ROSSK W, et al. I know where you are: thwarting privacy protection in location-based social discovery services[C]//Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops. Piscataway, USA: IEEE, 2015:179-184.
[9]
GUOJ D, XUR, SHIW Q, et al. Instant messaging user geolocating method based on multisource information association[J]. International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2021,35(2):99-110.
[10]
SHIY Y, LUOX Y, SHIW Q. From crowds to coordinates: a user density-distance dynamic transformation method for Telegram users geolocalization[J]. Computer Networks, 2025,266:No.111316.
[11]
XUS, FUX M, CAOJ X, et al. Survey on user location prediction based on geo-social networking data[J]. World Wide Web, 2020,23(3):1621-1664.
[12]
HOANGN P, ASANOY, YOSHIKAWAM. Your neighbors are my spies: location and other privacy concerns in dating apps[C]//Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology. Piscataway, USA: IEEE, 2016:715-721.
[13]
WANGH D, LIY, CHENY, et al. Co-location social networks: linking the physical world and cyberspace[J]. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2019,18(5):1028-1041.
[14]
SETAG D. Sociality, circulation, transaction: WeChat’s infrastructural affordances[J]. Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 2020,6(2):65-82.
[15]
时文旗.LBSD类社交平台用户定位技术研究[D]. 郑州:信息工程大学,2022:4-15.
[16]
MORIYAK, FUJIMOTOM, ARAKAWAY, et al. Effective trilateration-based indoor localization method utilizing active control of lighting devices[J]. Sensors and Materials, 2020,32(2):No.625.
[17]
DINGY, PEDDINTIS T, ROSSK W. Stalking Beijing from Timbuktu: a generic measurement approach for exploiting location-based social discovery[C]//Proceedings of the 4th ACM Workshop on Security and Privacy in Smartphones & Mobile Devices. New York, USA: ACM, 2014:75-80.
[18]
LIM Y, ZHUH J, GAOZ Y, et al. All your location are belong to us: breaking mobile social networks for automated user location tracking[C]//Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing. New York, USA: ACM, 2014:43-52.
[19]
SHIW Q, LUOX Y, GUOJ D, et al. Where are WeChat users: a geolocation method based on user missequence state analysis[J]. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 2021,8(2):319-331.
[20]
PENGJ W, MENGY, XUEM H, et al. Attacks and defenses in location-based social networks: a heuristic number theory approach[C]//Proceedings of the 2015 International Symposium on Security and Privacy in Social Networks and Big Data. Piscataway, USA: IEEE, 2015:64-71.
CHENGH N, MAOS L, XUEM H, et al. On the impact of location errors on localization attacks in location-based social network services[C]//Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Security, Privacy, and Anonymity in Computation,Communication and Storage. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2016:343-357.
[24]
KARNEYC F F. Algorithms for geodesics[J]. Journal of Geodesy, 2013,87(1):43-55.
[25]
SHIW Q, LUOX Y, ZHAOF, et al. Geolocating a WeChat user based on the relation between reported and actual distance[J]. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 2018,14(4):No.84182167.