Radiant Earth Foundation Joins the Locus Charter
The Locus Charter promotes responsible practice in the use of location data across all sectors.
We are pleased to announce that we’ve joined the Locus Charter, together with the American Geographical Society (AGS), Association for Geographical Information (AGI), Environmental Information Systems Africa (EIS — Africa), the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI — Mexico), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), PLACE, Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The Locus Charter is a collection of ten international principles to support the ethical and responsible practice of individuals and organizations when using location data. Launched in March 2021 after a multi-year strategic partnership between the American Geographical Society’s EthicalGEO and the Benchmark Initiative, the charter is designed to help improve our understanding of the risks and solutions related to the uses of location data, and to help protect the public from bad actors of data-driven applications. The charter was developed in collaboration with location data and data ethics experts from across the globe and has received support from Omidyar Network, Henry Luce Foundation, and Ordnance Survey.
As a supporting organization of the Locus Charter, we agree to use location data responsibly, and will actively work to improve location data practices across all our portfolios, including individual projects and organizational mandates. In addition, we will also actively promote responsible practice in the use of location data across all sectors including public, private, educational, and not-for-profit contexts.
The American Geographical Society’s EthicalGEO serves as the executive secretariat of the Locus Charter and supports the coordination, organization, and development of the initiative.
“Joining the Locus Charter is a perfect fit,” said Dr. Hamed Alemohammad, Executive Director and Chief Data Scientist at Radiant Earth Foundation. “The technologies we use at Radiant Earth help us understand the context of living in a changing climate and offer deeper insights on how society can respond to these changes. But as data curators, we must be ever vigilant to prevent any misuse of geospatial data and anonymization failures. We are excited to combine our efforts with a group of like minded organizations, which will help improve the standard of practice around location data.”
“We are excited by the speed with which the Locus Charter has achieved worldwide interest and commitment by such an esteemed group of organizations. We hope every organization considers the transformational role of location and geospatial technologies in their business or mission, and raises their voice around the importance of their responsible and ethical use by joining in support of the Locus Charter,” said Dr. Christopher Tucker, Chairman of the American Geographical Society and Locus Charter Collaborating Author.
To become a signatory supporting organization, please contact the Locus Charter Executive Secretariat at the American Geographical Society at locuscharter@americangeo.org to request a Letter of Engagement.
