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ARCHIVED - Geospatial Information – How mapping data can reveal more than your location
The oldest surviving maps were painted on rocks by Neolithic tribesmen and scratched into clay tablet by Mesopotamian cartographers.
Today, the science of mapping has evolved to the point where you can download to your mobile handset an application that directs you to the nearest public washroom in many countries around the world.
Without a doubt, the modern-day capacity to layer a limitless range of digital data over basic maps can generate a wealth of convenient and highly desirable products for consumers. In the past few years alone, we’ve seen a proliferation of applications that go miles beyond the street maps of old.
Now, for instance, you can pinpoint the whereabouts of people through Google Latitude or Loopt, or locate a restaurant or other service, all by way of your mobile phone or handheld device. GPS technology helps you find your way. And, with street-level imaging technology such as Canpages or Google Street View, recently launched in Canada, you can take a virtual tour of an expanding selection of world cities.
Apart from the commercial uses for these new geospatial applications, governments in this post-9/11 era are also interested in digital location data that could help them ward off potential terrorist threats.
And health authorities are looking to the technology to plot infectious disease hotspots within communities, or to monitor the movements of infectious patients inside hospitals.
Risks and Benefits
But with all those benefits comes the risk of serious threats to the privacy of Canadians.
“All of these new applications involve personal information, which is why mapping technologies are very much on the radar screen for our Office,” notes Assistant Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, who has been organizing a series of workshops to explore the implications of geospatial information technologies.
The first workshop was held last June, and brought together commercial and academic experts in the field. The particular focus was on the use of mapping technologies in the healthcare field.
A second workshop, scheduled for the fall, will examine how companies are going mobile with their marketing efforts, targeting customers according to their movements and locations at specific times.
According to Ms. Denham, “a key question as we look at how to protect privacy in this context is the following: When does geospatial information become personal information?”
This is an important consideration because, in Canada, federal and provincial privacy laws apply to “personal information,” which is generally defined as information that could permit a person to be identified. With limited exceptions, information about an identifiable individual may only be collected, used or disclosed with the knowledge and consent of the individual concerned.
Getting Personal
Taking it to the Street
In October, Google launched its Street View service in Canada. The service captures images of people and streetscapes so users of the Google maps application can take virtual tours of cities.
Prior to the launch, our Office discussed with Google the importance of respecting the privacy rights of Canadians. We were pleased to see that they agreed to several important steps.
For instance, people’s faces are blurred online, unblurred images in the company’s databanks are retained only for specified lengths of time, and it is doing some notification when its camera vehicles come to town. As well, clinics, shelters and other sensitive agencies are to receive special notice so that they can protect the confidentiality of their clients. In our view, both the notification and the blurring could be improved. We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of Google’s notification activities and blurring technology, while ensuring that people can request removal of their images from the site.
Guidance on Covert Video Surveillance in the Private Sector
(May 2009)
Internet sites, particularly in the United States, often layer personal information over maps without obtaining the consent of the individuals concerned.
University of Ottawa professor Teresa Scassa, for example, points to RottenNeighbor.com, a site currently under construction, where anyone can post anonymous slurs against their neighbours, alongside an image of where those people live.
Gawker.com’s ‘Stalker’ feature allows people to send in celebrity sightings, which are promptly pinned to an accompanying map. Some particularly creepy postings even reveal where a star’s children go to school.
And what about using cameras for public surveillance, or capturing images of people in public places?
“There’s a common misconception that privacy law doesn’t apply to taking photos of people in public spaces,” notes Ms. Denham, who has been in active discussions with providers of street-level imaging applications.
“If an organization photographs someone in a public place for commercial purposes, then the law applies. And it requires that people be informed when their image is being taken and what it will be used for. It requires, moreover, their consent.”
Privacy Challenge
A key privacy challenge associated with the new geospatial technologies is that people simply don’t realize that their personal information is being collected, used or disclosed.
For example, when you use your mobile device to call up a list of nearby restaurants, you’re feeding your exact location, the time, and possibly other personal information, into databanks you may not know anything about.
Considered on its own, your location at that instant may not seem especially useful to anybody else. But, with the unrestricted power of computers to compile, mix and match data from an endless array of sources, it’s now possible to create a comprehensive portrait of your personal activities, patterns and preferences.
And that could be very useful to business, marketers, applications developers or anybody else with an interest in attracting your wallet to their product or service.
Getting Privacy Right in a World of “Mashups” and “Renonymizing”
Remarks at the Geomatics Industry of Canada Annual Leaders Forum
Address by Elizabeth Denham, Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
June 17, 2009
Privacy and the Changing World of Maps
Remarks at the PIPA Conference 2009
Address by Elizabeth Denham, Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Vancouver, British Columbia
October 15, 2009