Patent ID: 7940170

Claim:
A method for providing tracking information with privacy protection, comprising: receiving in a tracking module a private identification (ID) defined by a user and storing the private ID in a memory of the tracking module; providing a user interface to the tracking module for the user to edit the private ID stored in the tracking module; in response to a trigger, the tracking module sending an instance of location tracking data to a location tracking server configured to receive and store the instance of location tracking data, the location tracking data including a representation of the private ID defined by the user; receiving in the location tracking server an initial service request including the private ID and a public ID linking the private ID with the user; and in response to the initial service request, providing to the user location based service from at least the instance of location tracking data, the tracking module sending each instance of tracking data with the private ID defined by the user and without information identifying the user such that the identity of the user is unknown at the location tracking server until the user makes the initial service request providing the private ID and the public ID to the location tracking server.