Large corporations, entrepreneurs, government officials, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the general public are now seeing the value of location and other types of geospatial information. Powerful applications based on geospatial information are being developed for commercial, governmental and consumer use. These applications are being used in a wide variety of industries, including transportation, construction, insurance and retail and are creating cost savings and efficiencies. Government agencies around the world are using geospatial technology to improve public transportation, infrastructure repair and maintenance and enhance public safety. Individuals are using location-enabled applications for navigation, shopping and other services, as well as monitoring loved ones. NGO’s are using the technology to save and rebuild lives during natural disasters, to fight the spread of infectious diseases and to protect natural resources.
However, we are just beginning to see the potential benefits of location. “Location-enabled” societies will have innumerable public and private benefits. Businesses that collect, use and distribute geospatial information will generate economic growth through job creation and revenue enhancement. Geospatial technology will also be used for cost savings throughout the economy. Government agencies will make their spatially-enabled information broadly available so as to spur innovation, create jobs and to allow them to deliver better services with greater transparency and at a reduced cost. Moreover, a location-enabled society will generate critical information that can be shared with other nations to address important transnational issues, such as preserving and protecting vital natural resources, addressing worldwide hunger and poverty, preventing the spread of infectious diseases and combating terrorism, piracy and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Such nations will have smart cities that will use geospatial information generated from the “internet of things”, smart grids and intelligent transportation systems to provide an enhanced quality of life for their citizens while better managing critical natural resources.
Legal threats
Unfortunately, there are a number of policy and legal developments that are beginning to threaten the broader adoption of geospatial technologies and consequently the creation of location-enabled societies. These developments include concerns over privacy, increased government regulation, uncertainty over ownership rights in location information, issues involving national and homeland security as well government funding challenges. Moreover, since these technologies and applications are interdependent and geospatial information can be used for a variety of purposes, the impact of policies and laws in one segment of this ecosystem inevitably impacts other segments. For example, failing to collect an individual’s location due to privacy concerns makes it harder to locate or identify him or her during an emergency. Similarly, cutbacks in government funding of environmental satellites could result in loss of weather information that will support the efficiencies of smart cities. In addition, products and services that require combining spatially-enabled information from governments, commercial enterprises (and increasingly, individuals) from around the world will be subject to differing and uncertain intellectual property regimes. Even attempts by governments to regulate the internet due to perceived national or homeland security concerns will inevitably reduce the availability of geospatial data for business and civilian purposes.
Maximising power of geospatial information
While the policy and regulatory framework necessary to support a location-enabled society will differ somewhat between nations, it is increasing clear that there are certain fundamental principles that will maximise the power of geospatial information while protecting against potential misuse. These principles include:
Individual location privacy must be properly protected. Protecting individual location privacy is critical in a location-enabled society. Otherwise individuals will be reluctant to adopt the necessary technology. However, such protections must take into account that a person’s location information is different from other types of personal information. For example, (i) defining “location” is much more difficult than defining other types of personal information, such as a social security number or financial records, (ii) individual’s disclose their “location” to a variety of people in numerous ways on a regular basis, (iii) location privacy is more heavily influenced by cultural factors such as gender, age, culture and religion and therefore is harder to codify, (iv) an individual’s location can be used for many more purposes – both good and bad, and (v) redefining a “reasonable expectation of privacy” from a location standpoint could have a number of significant unintended consequences in other areas of law.
Governments must continue to play an active role in the collection and distribution of data. Adequate government funding (either direct or indirect) for certain types of geospatial information (such as weather) is critical. Government agencies are also the primary repositories of many other types of geospatial data, such as land records. As a result, governments need to make funding the collection of geospatial information a priority, even in tight budget times. In addition, government agencies should continue the trend of making geospatial information broadly available.
The availability and flow of geospatial information over the internet must be protected. In a global economy, location-enabled data must be transferrable across borders to be stored and combined with other types of information for analysis and visualisation. As a result, a location-enabled society will require the free flow of geospatial information over the internet. Censorship or restrictions that impact any step of the process will make it difficult to use geospatial information for domestic purposes or to address critical transnational issues.
Location information must be interoperable. A ‘location-enabled” society will require combining geospatial data from a variety of sources. This means that the various data types collected from numerous sensors around the world and processed, analysed and visualised on different systems must be interoperable. From a technical standpoint, this will require the broad adoption of relevant standards. From a legal standpoint, this will require updating intellectual property laws to reflect the growing importance and complexities associated with “big data.”
Regulations should be balanced, narrowly tailored and technology neutral. Lawmakers and policymakers are beginning to propose regulating the quality of geospatial data or its use in certain applications. Such proposals will increase as the appreciation for the power of location grows. However, public policy is inherently a trade-off between benefits and risks. Therefore, such polices should be made only after taking into account the full benefit of a location-enabled society. Moreover, any policy or regulation must be technology-neutral and narrowly tailored so as to minimise unintended consequences.
Laws, regulations and policies with respect to the collection, use and transfer of location information must be clear, transparent and consistently applied. As laws, regulations and policies develop, it is critical that they be clear, transparent and consistently applied. Increasingly, efforts to collect or share information are being thwarted due to laws, regulations or policies that are not publicly disclosed or universally applied. Such inconsistencies will make it difficult, if not impossible, to create the necessary environment for a “location-enabled” society.
In this highly competitive global marketplace, nations that begin the process of developing a legal and policy framework that takes advantage of the power of geospatial data will realise both economic and societal benefits. In addition, they will become international leaders in addressing critical transnational matters. Nations that do not develop such frameworks run the risk of being on the wrong side of the “geo-divide.” More ominously, the lack of such a framework could result in the creation of dystopian societies in which these same technologies can be used by closed-minded or repressive regimes to hinder economic growth and even endanger personal freedom.
