US Patent 9436180 Location-based privacy

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to anonymizing user identity from nearby vehicles, such as autonomous vehicles, that may be gathering sensor data. In one aspect, one or more computing devices of an autonomous vehicle may receive location information identifying a geographic location. Further, the one or more computing devices may receive sensor data captured by one or more sensors of the vehicle and determine whether any of the sensor data is within a threshold distance from the geographic location. Based on the determination, the one or more computing devices may filter the sensor data that is within the threshold distance and send the filtered sensor data to one or more server computing devices for further processing.