Spatial Law and Policy Update (October 8, 2014)

Privacy

Exclusive: Hundreds Of Devices Hidden Inside New York City Phone Booths  (BuzzFeed)

New York City Shuts Down Unauthorized Sensors  (WSJ) A follow up to the link above. Geo organizations can learn a great deal from this matter. 

'God View': Uber Allegedly Stalked Users For Party-Goers' Viewing Pleasure (Updated)  (Forbes) As I mentioned to someone recently, I am increasingly convinced that geolocation privacy laws are going to arise due to acts of the non-traditional geospatial community, will have much broader ramifications than anticipated which will go largely unnoticed until too late.

 Licensing

Creative Commons Letter  "Together, we agreed that licenses alone will not achieve our dream of greater access to knowledge and culture worldwide. Laws must change too." 

Data Quality

Map error hastened Napoleon’s Waterloo defeat  (The Telegraph) "We compared the printed map used on the battlefield with the original handdrawn one it was copied from,” Mr Ferrand said. “We realised it was a printing error". 

Government

      

    Public Safety/Law Enforcement/National Security

    The brand new „No-Spy-Decree“ – Consequences for Public Contracts with Foreign Undertakings  (TaylorWessing) The law "requires a guarantee that at the time of the submission of the offer they do not face any legal obligation to disclose confidential information, business or trade secrecies to foreign intelligence services. If disclosure obligations arise after the conclusion of the public contract, the supplier is obliged to inform the contracting authority that he will not be able to comply with the no spy obligation."

    Tech companies say NSA spying harms competitiveness  (USA Today) See above. 

    Taiwan Close to Completion of their Own Map for the South China Sea  (ASM) Maps can serve a variety of purposes.

Technology Platforms

UAVs

CBP Complies With Privacy Laws For UAS Surveillance, Audit Finds (HS Today)

Finally, Here's Every Organization Allowed to Fly Drones in the US  (MotherBoard)

Use of UAVs for Commercial Purposes in U.S.: Privacy Measures  (Spatial Law and Policy Blog)

America can’t lead the world in innovation if the FAA keeps dragging its feet on drone rules  (Washington Post) 

Shooting Your Neighbor's Drone May Be Illegal—And It May Not  (ReadWrite)

Internet of Things/Smart Grid/Intelligent Transportation Systems

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Considers Privacy Implications for New Vehicle-to-Vehicle Technology  (Data Privacy Monitor)

Connected Cars – legal issues and hurdles!  (IPT Italy Blog)

Geolocation Privacy and the Smart Grid: Department of Energy's Proposed Voluntary Code of Conduct  (Spatial Law and Policy Blog)

Space-based Remote Sensing

The U.S. and India Sign a Collaboration Agreement for Earth Observation and Mars Exploration (Sensors & Systems)

Japan Launches Next-generation Weather Satellite  (SpaceNews)

China, Venezuela To Collaborate on New Earth Observing Satellite  (SpaceNews) 

Crowdsourcing

Missing Maps: nothing less than a human genome project for cities  (The Guardian)

Google’s Waze announces government data exchange program with 10 initial partners  (TNW) I have been saying for a while that the geo-ecosystem is increasingly one in which industry, government and the "crowd" are both data providers and data users, often at the same time. This is another example. What this means from a legal/policy standpoint is that a law/regulation that impacts one segment will likely impact the other segments as well. Many (most?) lawmakers are unaware of this unique aspect of geospatial community. 

Miscellaneous

Emerging Technology and Existing Law: Can Geofencing Provide Radio Webcasters a Workaround of Digital Performance Royalties?  An interesting article on the impact that geo can have on existing legal constructs.

Upcoming Programs

GEOGRAPHY2050  (November 19, 2014, New York, New York)