Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Spatial Law and Policy Update


Privacy







Remote Sensing





UAVs

Drone Use Takes Off on the Home Front (The Wall Street Journal)

Data Quality Liability Issues


Intellectual Property Rights


Crowdsourcing


Internet


Miscellaneous

Improving global road safety (UN General Assembly)

Monday, April 9, 2012

Centre for Spatial Law and Policy Comments on Proposed Privacy Codes of Conduct

The Centre for Spatial Law and Policy recently submitted comments on location privacy to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The comments were submitted in connection with the NTIA's request for comments to the Multistakeholder Process to Develop Consumer Data Privacy Codes of Conduct.
Policymakers and regulators in the U.S. are continuing to explore ways to increase protect consumer privacy in a digital world. For example, in March the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued Protecting Consumer Privacy In An Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Businesses and Policymakers.

Regulators and policymakers have expressed strong concerns with consumer privacy issues associated with location information. Many of these concerns are associated with mobile devices and related apps. However, as set forth in the Centre's comments, there are a number of issues that should be considered before location information is regulated. Otherwise, there is a real risk that legislation/regulation will be overly broad and have a number of unintended and negative consequences.

Unfortunately, given the various types of location information, the different methods that location information can be collected and the many ways it can be used, defining the issue and coming up with ways to develop effective laws/policies/regulations will prove to be a real challenge.  As a result, efforts to regulate location privacy is not just an issue for developers of mobile apps or manufacturers of mobile devices; it is an issue the entire geospatial industry should follow.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The Spatial Law and Policy Update (April 1, 2012)


Privacy

Japanese Surveillance Camera System Can Check 36 Million Faces Per Second (ieee Spectrum)

This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s A Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy [Update] (Cult of Mac)

The Philosopher Whose Fingerprints Are All Over the FTC's New Approach to Privacy (The Atlantic)

Some Thoughts On Online Privacy (AVC)

European Data Protection Authorities adopt opinion on data protection reform proposals (European Commission)

Email and web use 'to be monitored' under new laws (BBC)

How Congress Should Tackle the Drone Privacy Problem (Center for Democracy and Technology)

The Security, Privacy and Legal Implications of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) (Information Law Group)


Intellectual Property

When Stealing Isn’t Stealing (The New York Times)


GNSS

Coalition Tells FCC LightSquared’s Conditional Authorization Must Be Revoked (Directions Magazine)

Dementia group urges government to subsidize GPS devices (Focus Taiwan)

Police: Driver distracted by GPS in crash killing 11-year-old girl (Delaware Online)

Potential dates of Joint Warrior GPS jamming published (BBC)


UAVs

How Congress Should Tackle the Drone Privacy Problem (Center for Democracy and Technology)


Law Enforcement/National Security

New tactics (Sage Journals)

Judge: Evidence in GPS-tracking case will be allowed (The News and Advance)

Mexico Adopts Alarming Surveillance Legislation (Electronic Frontier Foundation)


Internet Regulation

The Arab Spring’s online backlash (The Economist)

World War 3.0 (Vanity Fair)


Commercial Satellite Imagery

Satellite Imagery Companies Brace For Cut In Federal Funding For Contracts (Washington Post)


Crowdsourcing

World Bank Announces Its Crowdsourced Map Data Will Be Free for the Crowd (Personal Democracy)


Miscellanous

H.R. 4233: To establish the National Geospatial Technology Administration within the United States Geological Survey (GovTrack)