Privacy Management and Optimal Pricing in People-Centric Sensing

Mohammad Abu Alsheikh, Dusit Niyato, Derek Leong, Ping Wang, Zhu Han

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

With the emerging sensing technologies, such as mobile crowdsensing and Internet of Things, people-centric data can be efficiently collected and used for analytics and optimization purposes. These data are typically required to develop and render people-centric services. In this paper, we address the privacy implication, optimal pricing, and bundling of people-centric services. We first define the inverse correlation between the service quality and privacy level from data analytics perspectives. We then present the profit maximization models of selling standalone, complementary, and substitute services. Specifically, the closed-form solutions of the optimal privacy level and subscription fee are derived to maximize the gross profit of service providers. For interrelated people-centric services, we show that cooperation by service bundling of complementary services is profitable compared with the separate sales but detrimental for substitutes. We also show that the market value of a service bundle is correlated with the degree of contingency between the interrelated services. Finally, we incorporate the profit sharing models from game theory for dividing the bundling profit among the cooperative service providers.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7879223
Pages (from-to)906-920
Number of pages15
JournalIEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Volume35
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Privacy Management and Optimal Pricing in People-Centric Sensing'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this