Posts/Editorials from recent conference on a Location-enabled society

A video of the recent conference on The Legal and Policy Framework for A Location-enabled Society will be available shortly. In the meantime, I would like to thank three of the speakers who wrote about the program in blog posts and editorials for contributing to the discussion on these important issues.

Nancy Colleton (Institute for Global Environmental Studies)   Location Data Reveals Our Changing Planet

Geoff Zeiss (Between the Poles) Privacy and Personal Geographic Data

Valerie Shuman (Shuman Group) Location-enabled Society Conference

5 Key Spatial Law and Policy Links (May 20, 2013)

Five links from the most recent Spatial Law and Policy Update prepared for the members of the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy. For more information about becoming a member of the Centre, click here.

ESA Study recommends free, open data policy for Sentinel data  (Geospatial World)

INTERNET LAW - Use of Mobile Phone Geolocation in Ireland's Criminal Proceedings  (ibls)  An informative discussion on the use of geolocation data from mobile devices by Irish authorities.

Judge Allows FBI To Use Evidence Collected Via Stingray Fake Cell Towers  (techdirt)  I find it interesting that it did not bother the judge that law enforcement failed to explain how the "Stingray" technology worked.

Germany cancels $1.3 billion purchase of unmanned Euro Hawk surveillance drones  (Washington Post) To quote from the article "A government official said Tuesday the decision not to buy four more drones was taken after it became clear that getting the required authorization to fly them over European airspace would be too costly." I wonder whether addressing privacy concerns were part of the anticipated costs.

Crowdsourcing - a great concept but are you aware of the legal risks?  (Kingsley Napley) Written by a UK law firm - but issues are applicable in most countries.

 

6 Key Spatial Law and Policy Links (May 13, 2013)

Map of Links

Apple's user data-sharing takes a hit in Germany after court objects to privacy policy  (ZDnet)  To quote from the article:  "Apple may need to redesign its data sharing practices for German consumers if the decision, handed down on Tuesday, by a Berlin regional court sticks." Location data is part of the issue.

Restaurants and hotels worried by EU data bill  (EU Observer.com) This article highlights how tougher data protection laws in Europe could impact a broad range of companies.

Has Big Data Made Anonymity Impossible?  (MIT Technology Review)

Reporting Fail: The Reidentification of Personal Genome Project Participants  (Info/Law) Anonymization and Reindentification are two very important concepts with respect to privacy. It is critical for the research surrounding them- be to be neutral and correct.

Will filming Times Square now require negotiating with hundreds of copyright owners?  (King & Wood Mallesons)  Discussion of copyright in U.S. and Australia.

  

China's Drone Program Appears To Be Moving Into Overdrive  (Huffington Post)  I wonder if other nations appreciate the    resources China is allocating to geospatial technology.  

Upcoming Conference on The Legal and Policy Framework for a Location-enabled Society

When the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy started a few years ago, I was frequently asked why a lawyer was attending geospatial conferences. As a result, it is with a great deal of pride to be preparing to leave for a conference the Centre is co-hosting with Harvard University's Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA), Berkman Center of Internet and Society and Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on May 2-3. The conference, titled "Creating the Policy and Legal Framework for a Location-enabled Society" will be live-streamed (details will be posted here) and combines leaders from many of the diverse aspects of the geospatial community with internationally-recognized academics and researchers from Harvard and other top universities.

One of the goals of the conference is for the various segments of the geospatial community to recognize that they each face many of the same policy and legal challenges, such as: privacy, intellectual property rights, licensing and potential liability risks.  Hopefully, such an understanding will result in organizations working together to address these difficult and critical issues world-wide. This will not be easy - geospatial technology is well out ahead of the legal and policy communities, and they are struggling to catch up. 

Another goal of the conference is to raise awareness within the technology policy community of the many societal, governmental and economic benefits that can be directly attributed to the collection and use of geospatial information. Such an awareness is critical as many policy (and budgetary) issues involve balancing potential benefits versus perceived risks. Unfortunately, the geospatial community often does not receive its proper share and/or credit on these broader policy issues.

If you have some time on Thursday and Friday I urge you to watch/listen to some of the conference. Admittedly, the issues to be discussed part of a broader set of issues that impact the adoption and use of geospatial technology. However, if the policy and legal issues are not adequately considered and addressed, there is a very good chance that geospatial technology will find its vast potential curtailed.
    

5 Key Spatial Law and Policy Links (April 29, 2013)

B.C. Privacy Commissioner Finds Engine Monitoring Technology Reasonable  (Blakes) A couple of important cases out of Canada. 

Whose Job Is It To Manage Software Licensing?  (Scott & Scott LLP) I think many of the same issues will apply to data audits to ensure license compliance.

Fine for national map violations in Vietnam  (Geospatial World)

How to save UK's open data: Meet the 'Fair Value Licence'  (The Register)  Interesting proposal on government data licenses.

Congressman Lamborn Introduces Bill to Create National Geospatial Technology Administration  (Directions Magazine) 

These stories were taken from the Spatial Law and Policy Update - the best source to keep current on legal and policy developments around the world that impact the collection, use and distribution of geoinformation. The Update is prepared weekly by the Center for Spatial Law and Policy for its members. To learn more about the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy and to become a member, click here.

Upcoming Programs

"Legal and Policy Framework for a Location-enabled Society", May 3, 2013 (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA) - cosponsored with Center for Geographic Analysis and Berkman Center for Internet and Society (more information here)

Privacy of geolocation: the new European and American law

Readers of this blog will recognize the Spanish attorney Efren Diaz as a frequent guest blogger. Please find below his views on geolocation privacy from a European and US perspective. The post has been translated to English (with a few formatting cleanups) from a blog in Spain on Spatial Data Infrastructures using Google Translate.)

In the last decade the privacy of geolocation has made ​​huge technological and legal interest. 

In January 2009 a report by the Justice Department of the United States on 2006 data confirmed that approximately 26,000 people had been harassed via GPS data,including mobile. In December 2010, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that 47 of the 101 best apps for smartphones yielded persons location data to third parties without the consent of the persons concerned. 

In April 2011, users of iPhone and Android smartphones know that their information will automatically send your location to Apple and Google, even while users are not using the applications or, in the case of Apple, when users had no way of preventing gathering information. In November of the same year 2011, consumers also knew that their smart phones with location information sent to companies that did not even know and no option to prevent the sending of geoinformation. 

In 2012 the development of satellites has allowed the collection of information from different parts of the electromagnetic space or through radar or sonar in the water and in the air. And the results have been processed in multiple formats depending on its ultimate use, including layered images added content. The scale of this phenomenon is growing geospatial and the amount of information processed by systems is unimaginable "Big Data". 

These facts have led to wonder if mankind is to remain helpless under these new sensors that can investigate every corner of our Earth. Moreover, in legal practice and technology and considers how these big issues affect the Knowledge Age behavior of individuals and societies.
 
So many people and organizations have requested that governments adopt safeguards to protect the location of people. In particular, it argues that the legislation prevents companies information on the location of the smartphones of customers each day and transfer it to almost any person or company without the express consent of the client or interested. 

These issues affect the backbone of spatial data infrastructures and how we work with mapping and geospatial services. Thus, in the United States, the Cable Act (47 USC § 551) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 USC § 2702) prohibits operators and telephone companies offer telephony services without the consent of clients and also prevent disclosure unauthorized third of customer data, including location. 

In Europe we are waiting for the approval of the draft General Regulation Data Protection , which addresses geolocation data in new and from the definition of "interested" (art. 4.1): "Any person has the right not to be As the subject of a legal effects concerning him or significantly affects him and which is based solely on automated processing intended to evaluate certain personal aspects specific to such individual or to analyze or predict job performance in particular, their economic , their location, their health, their personal preferences, reliability or behavior "(art. 20.1, in relation to art. 33). 

And in the United States and has been presented in this March 2013 draft of the"Law of protection of communications and geolocation online" (" Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act "), one of the highest impact to today, and is expected to have a special influence on legislation in numerous states geoinformation North America and its environment. The main reasons are its good definition of measures and safeguards rightly referred to the protection of all kinds of information, especially the location. Do not think only in "GPS data", but in the log data, tracking of people and goods and geolocation technology. 

The rule behind this new legislation is that location data may only be disclosed to legal requirement or court "if there is probable cause to believe that records location information will provide evidence in legal or criminal investigation." 

Among the new measures proposed, highlights the "annual transparency" of the operators on the frequency of reporting requirements that are location and what kind of information reveal. Will be required to wireless companies for both the general public and to the national or regional government. 

This measure is part of, among others, in the judgment of January 2012 and the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States of 23 January 2012 laying unconstitutional and contrary to the Fourth Amendment (on "Privacy" ) of the American Constitution which police conduct an illegal search and track criminal unreasonable when they installed a GPS device on the suspect's car for 28 days without legal safeguards or judicial. Even four of the judges noted that the measure violated the "reasonable expectation of privacy" of the suspect. 

Therefore, the new privacy legislation of geolocation in Europe and the United States should be expanded from the protection of individuals in relation to monitoring and tracking the location of people in real time, based on their mobile geodata . Also urges prevent unauthorized access to the records of the operators about where and when users make calls or send and receive text messages. 

In our [Mr. Diaz'] opinion, the location information can make extensive disclosures about the personal and professional lives of smartphone users, about his private life, his friends and business partners on their participation in political activities or their healthcare. 

Therefore, we consider it vital to adopt by Legislator adequate and effective guarantees in legal research, if approved by the court, before requesting and disclosing this kind of information by providers and Internet phone services. 

This kind of transparency is essential for proper dialogue between the power of law enforcement, including the INSPIRE Directive or LISIGE in Spain, and in the modern world  geospatial technology. 

For more infromation on Mr. Diaz and his law firm, please click here. 

Will We Expect the Media To Protect Location Privacy?

I came across this article from The Telegraph online while putting together the Centre's weekly Spatial Law and Policy Update.  The article references an individual who was very unhappy that an image of his home was available on Google Street View. He was concerned that burglars could use the imagery to target homes in the neighborhood. A number of other sites have subsequently cross-linked to the article.

The reporter's (a "Technology Correspondent") intent is clearly to highlight the need for greater protection of individuals' location privacy. For example, the article cites the reported 'sheer arrogance' of Google in not blurring the pictures of the home, and references the citizens as "security-conscious".

However, the reporter (or editor) included a few other items of information in his article, including:

1. The individual's full name;
2. His city;
3. His neighborhood;
4. His street;
5. His leadership position (in business)
6. A blurred image of a home with a beautiful yard, fronted by a small brick wall and a paved driveway.

Based upon this information, a quick and simple internet search will lead to the individual's exact address (as well as a great deal of other information that the individual wishes were private).  

One can argue the merits of services such as Google Street View and views can differ on the associated privacy concerns. However, I think that most people would be more concerned about the privacy risks associated with the additional information included in the article rather than an image of a home from a publicly accessible street. By granting an interview to the reporter some would argue that the individual has given his consent to the use of his name and "location" - which is a fundamental principle in most privacy regimes. But was that consent "informed". Did the individual know exactly what additional information would be aggregated with his name to provide additional substance to the story and how the information could be used? Most likely not.

I don't mean to suggest that the reporter intended to violate the individual's privacy. Rather, I am trying to point out some of the difficulties in protecting (regulating) privacy from a location standpoint. Society is beginning to recognize what the geospatial community has known for a long time - location information is powerful. And some segments of society are very uncomfortable with this power. However, it is important to acknowledge that most people are so used to giving - and using - location information that it is almost second nature. (For example, the reporter in the article referencing the street, city and individual's name).  There is a real risk that without informed discussion, efforts to protect privacy from a location standpoint will bump up against these customary uses of location information. The result is likely to be some surprising and unintended consequences.

(Some of you will note that this is not the first time I have addressed this particular issue.)