  Location-based services offer immense utility, but also pose significant
privacy risks. In response, we propose LocPIR, a novel framework using
homomorphic encryption (HE), specifically the TFHE scheme, to preserve user
location privacy when retrieving data from public clouds. Our system employs
TFHE's expertise in non-polynomial evaluations, crucial for comparison
operations. LocPIR showcases minimal client-server interaction, reduced memory
overhead, and efficient throughput. Performance tests confirm its computational
speed, making it a viable solution for practical scenarios, demonstrated via
application to a COVID-19 alert model. Thus, LocPIR effectively addresses
privacy concerns in location-based services, enabling secure data sharing from
the public cloud.
