Mapping a path forward: Addressing spatial data’s ethical challenges
by Chelsey Walden-Schreiner and Claudia Juech
The public and private sectors are increasingly implementing broad mechanisms to govern data collection, analysis, and use through ethics boards and guidelines.
In this context, spatial data’s rapidly growing volume, precision, and availability necessitate greater consideration given the unique opportunities it affords. With the ability to literally connect the dots between disparate sources of information, spatial data pose considerable ethical concerns like the ease of surveillance or deanonymization of individuals and groups. And the challenge is growing.
Of the nearly 44 trillion gigabytes of data created each day, it’s suggested that over 80% of it is spatial as it contains a reference to a physical location. These data, known as geospatial data, represent not only objects, conditions, events, and people, but also the where and when that makes it possible to explore relationships more deeply across space and time. While this volume of spatial information flowing from satellites, cellular networks, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT) affords extraordinary opportunities for understanding and addressing our shared challenges — like climate change and its impacts, improving health outcomes, and addressing food security concerns — as with any type of information or technology, opportunities exist for unintended consequences or intentional targeting.
For example, location sharing by users of a fitness app unintentionally mapped restricted and sensitive areas. While accidental, the level of detail raised security concerns about the potential use of that information by others. In another instance, anecdotal evidence suggested that daily updating findings from a university initiative that aimed to identify alleged mass atrocities from satellite imagery for humanitarian purposes may also have been used by others to target the groups the data were intended to help.
Limited regulation of and frameworks about the use of spatial data has created ambiguity, sparking concerns and legal action, including how data aggregators and brokers compile and sell location data. Although marketed as anonymized information, research has shown it’s possible to identify and track individuals, revealing information about their health (e.g., mental health care, reproductive care), religious practices, or use of shelters and other sensitive locations. And, even if the intent is not to identify individuals, groups may still be distinguishable though not always considered or defined in existing frameworks.
Adding to the complexity of the ethics discussion is the increasing prevalence and precision of remotely collected information. In the past 30 years, publicly-accessible satellite imagery has advanced from one pixel of an image representing an area of approximately 200 feet by 200 feet (60 m x 60 m) on the ground every few weeks to under a one foot by one foot (15–20 cm) area almost daily. The increase in granularity allows shifting from recognizing deforestation after large areas have been clear cut to identifying informal roads as they are constructed for the illegal logging of targeted high-value tree species. All of this is possible without being physically present, scaling the opportunity for impactful, near real-time monitoring–like that for plastic pollution–and data analysis to more proactively address grand challenges. It does, though, raise questions about how it can impact vulnerable communities when data can be collected and used without their consent.
While some of these special considerations have been recognized for years–codified in professional organization codes of ethics and conduct statements–growing technologies, data volumes and user-generated content, applications, and preciseness are catalyzing broader conversations and new initiatives about how best to steward geospatial data. This includes consideration of the opportunistic nature through which some spatial data are generated. Data captured by mobile devices (e.g., location recorded by apps), for example, naturally only represents those with access to such devices and connectivity and prompts questions about who is, and who is not, represented in this wealth of information. It also elevates the importance of proactive discussions and policy development involving the ethical implications of geospatial data and offers an opportunity to embrace inclusive, diverse, and equitable approaches by asking questions like: data created by whom, for whom, and shared with whom?
Raising awareness
Workshops and facilitated conversations about longstanding and emerging concerns are regularly hosted by non-governmental organizations like the UN Global Geospatial Information Management, World Geospatial Industry Council in partnership with the UN International Telecommunications Union, and industry-academic partnerships. For example, the American Association of Geographers through their GeoEthics project, in partnership with the University of California Santa Barbara and the geospatial software company ESRI, hosted a series of online workshops focused on the implications of increasingly precise geolocation data. Themes ranged from surveillance and governance, to geospatial analytics and the re-identification of anonymized data.
Developing tools and checklists
Nonprofit organizations have developed recommendations and procedures to inform collecting, using, and sharing geospatial data. UNICEF (a Data and Society Accelerator partner in 2022) for example, developed guidelines in 2018 for humanitarian and development organizations on ethical considerations when using geospatial technologies to collect data. They offer a checklist of questions to consider, ranging from privacy concerns, surveillance, and managing risk to more program specific recommendations for data management (e.g., immunization programs).
Similarly, the UK Statistics Authority offers an ethics checklist for the use of geospatial data in statistics. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Interest Group published a group note on the Responsible Use of Spatial Data that describes existing legal and ethical frameworks, and proposes principles for spatial data sharing that consider implications from the perspective of users, developers, and regulators.
Striving for global consensus
One promising new approach is the Locus Charter, supported by the Benchmark and American Geographical Society’s EthicalGEO initiatives. Recognizing a gap in global data privacy debates regarding geospatial information, the Locus Charter brings together a diverse network of supporters across sectors and geographies, championing and implementing a shared set of collaboratively developed global principles.
Building on efforts like those mentioned above, the principles cover privacy, bias, and do no harm, as well as minimizing intrusion, protecting the vulnerable, and providing accountability. Through an intentionally inclusive and global dialogue, the charter strives to improve practice standards to minimize risks and maximize benefits associated with geospatial technologies. Within this network of networks, opportunity exists for collaboration and peer learning on the actual implementation of these shared practices. It is through iterative principle development and shared learnings that offer the potential to keep pace with fast moving technologies and applications, and encourage constructive conversations about ethical considerations in different contexts.
Given the importance of place in analyses with geospatial data, it’s encouraging to see it take a leading role in understanding not only what global standards should and could be, but also how they are implemented around the world. The global focus is crucial given the ubiquity and ease of generating geospatial data beyond borders.
Looking ahead
These initiatives are just a few examples of efforts to inclusively bring consistency and transparency to the use of increasingly precise and accessible location data. As a foundation committed to the ethical use of data and AI, we recognize the extraordinary and unique impact that geospatial data can have as well as the responsibility to center data governance, ethics, and privacy conversations within communities and use contexts. We can continue to ask how do we balance the generation (and want) for precise spatial data with the desire to protect individual and group privacy? How do we ensure location-driven applications align with diverse values? How does consent factor into big geospatial data? And, importantly, how do we ensure broad participation in the framing and application of the novel insights geospatial data can produce? We welcome continuing this conversation in the comments section below and working together toward ethical and innovative (geospatial) data solutions to support an equitable, sustainable future for all.
Chelsey Walden-Schreiner provides data science support to Data and Society grant partners, including assistance during initial project design, advanced data analysis, and modeling.
Claudia Juech leads the Data and Society program, which builds technical capacity and data-use cultures at nonprofits and social impact organizations around the world.
