Design and implementation of an Android application to anonymously analyse locations of the citizens in Barcelona

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and implementation of an Android app, MobilitApp, which anonymously collects and analyzes citizens' location data in Barcelona to study mobility patterns while ensuring user privacy.

Contribution

It introduces new tools for data exploitation, enhances user engagement, and improves security, enabling wider adoption and future feature expansion.

Findings

Increased number of connected users

Enhanced security for sensitive data

Established channels for future functionalities

Abstract

The MobilitApp application is able to obtain mobility data and type of activity performed by a person. It runs in the background and stores the information in synchronous periodic locations. The main work of this project was to develop tools that facilitate the exploitation of the information obtained, add elements that make it attractive to use the application and spread it to a wider audience. With these new procedures, we manage to increase the number of connected users, improve security with which sensitive user information is managed and establish channels that will be used to add additional functionality to the application in future works.