Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the most important ethical issues for the future of GIS is
locational privacy. Location-based services open the door to many intriguing
and helpful capabilities, but also offer malicious people and groups opportu-
nities to collect information about peoples' movements and offer companies
possibilities to use the information collected for other purposes. The poten-
tial for abuse is so substantial that the infringment on locational privacy has
been referred to as “geoslavery” by some well-know GIS Science figures.
Locational privacy is an issue that dovetails with concerns about increas-
ing surveillance. The exaggerated powers of surveillance technology as
shown in popular U.S. movies may be far off, but dense networks of surveil-
lance certainly already exist. No vehicle enters the center of London without
its license plate number being recorded. The surveillance networks of com-
munist East Germany showed how much information can be collected even
with the help of very modest information technology. The increase in the
number of surveillance cameras coupled with data from mobile phones and
GPS devices and other sensors opens the doors to unimaginable levels of
surveillance.
The biggest constraint for surveillance remains the amount of data col-
lected. The collection and reuse of data poses special challenges. Data col-
lected legitimately for one purpose (e.g., the use of prepaid public transpor-
tation stored-value cards) can be linked to other data (e.g., images from a
surveillance camera) to compile information on individuals that impinges on
their privacy. Right now there are several legal limits in the United States on
what private companies can do with information after it has been collected,
but no blanket law defines privacy and its protection. How legitimate reuse
of data should be regulated persists in posing special challenges.
Professional groups recognize a responsibility for establishing principles
to help guide their members' activities through these very complex issues.
The ethical guidelines or rules presented by various professional agencies
provide a useful starting point for considering what is appropriate behavior
in a variety of challenging situations.
Educators are also called upon to engage these challenges in their in-
struction. Generally, ethical issues fall short in technically orientated pro-
grams and even in professional programs compared to technological issues.
The possibility is certainly there to engage ethical issues in conjunction with
technical and organizational questions, which seems a more vibrant way to
deal with the many changes facing GIS and mapping.
Who Pays for the Data?
Among these changes are substantial institutional changes related to the col-
lection, maintenance, and publication of GI and maps. Large mapping orga-
nizations are challenged both internally because of the reduced size of gov-
ernment and externally by the increase in the number of service providers
offering GI resources and services to key customer groups. The availability
of low-cost GPS equipment has already greatly changed the way that maps
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