Designing for Location Privacy

The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

Data is what data does - more about that later on ;)

This episode focuses on designing for privacy, how do we create value from location data without sacrificing personal privacy?

Well, you might start by adhering to the Enhanced Standards For Precise Location Information which means that information about sensitive places like churches, hospitals, military bases, and LGBTQ+ spaces isn't misused or sold. Plus, they protect our exact location from being shared with law enforcement or bounty hunters!

Yes, that's right bounty hunters!

You might also think about adding noise to the data, maybe you want to blur the time stamp and look at everything in aggregate?

It turns out the location data is not just classified as personal data but is actually classified as sensitive personal data in privacy law so if you are going to work with it you really need to understand the risks involved.

One of the really interesting ideas mentioned by Elizabeth Hein VP of Compliance & Data Protection was the idea of regulating Use, Harm, and Risk instead of sensitive data

Data Is What Data Does: Regulating Use, Harm, and Risk Instead of Sensitive Data

If you want to learn more about POI data and why points of interest data are so hard

check out the episode called All of the Places in the World: https://mapscaping.com/podcast/all-of-the-places-in-the-world/

On a side note, I am working on a side project, it's a job board for geospatial people, and you can find it here https://mapscaping.com/jobs/ it's still in the development phase but feel free to check it out!