Author: N/A
Publisher: The MapScaping Podcast
Publication Year: 2020
Summary: The following podcast episode discusses how geospatial data can be powerful for driving business decisions and development but raises questions about location privacy and the ability to identify individuals using real-time data. Privacy issues are a major concern in the realm of data ethics as people are often unaware of how much a corporation or other people know about them through the data collected. Because geospatial data is very personal and granular, there needs to be greater transparency about how the data is used and the potential risks involved in order to gather trust from the public. Disclosure to the public and prioritization of the representation of marginalized groups can get people to want to understand and feel confident that their data will not be used against them. Data scientists can address transparency concerns by using a registry and implementing a shared standard about ethical decisions. Furthermore, equal access can be promoted by investigating which demographics are missing from the data and allowing users to opt into data sharing. Allowing users to make informed decisions about data collection can reduce privacy violations and prevent models from causing harm when put in the wrong hands. Changing the mindset of fear of being called out if the technology is wrong can ensure that we can build better models by learning from our mistakes while openly responding to concerns of the general public about ethical use.