Federal Geographic Data Committee/

National Geospatial Advisory Committee

CIO Council Privacy Subcommittee Meeting

February 19, 2015

Geospatial Privacy Briefing
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Overview

Introductions

 FGDC: 

 Ivan DeLoatch - FGDC Executive Director

 John Mahoney - FGDC Senior Policy Advisor

 NGAC: 

 Kevin Pomfret – Executive Director, Centre for Spatial Law and Policy

 Doug Richardson - Executive Director, Association of American 

Geographers

Geospatial Privacy

 Key Points

 Issues to Consider

Conclusion

 Discussion/Next Steps
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Federal Geographic Data Committee

Established by OMB, Chaired by 

DOI

 32 member agencies

 Advances the National Spatial Data 

Infrastructure (NSDI)

 Implements OMB Circular A-16 and 

Executive Order 12906

Key Activities:

 NSDI Implementation

 National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) 

Management

 Geospatial Platform Implementation

 Geospatial Standards & Metadata

 Partnerships & Collaboration

NSDI 

Implementation

NGDA Management

Geospatial Platform

Shared Services
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National Geospatial Advisory Committee

FACA Advisory Body

 Sponsored by DOI, reports to FGDC 

Chair

 Balanced membership – 30 members 

from all levels of government, private 

sector, non-profits, academia

Roles & mission

 Provides advice and recommendations on 

National geospatial policy & management 

issues

Current Activities

 NSDI Outreach/Communications

 Geospatial Privacy

 Crowd-sourced Geospatial Data

 Landsat program

 Elevation Data

NGAC Workforce Development White Paper

January 2012

Geospatial Workforce Development

A compendium of white papers focused on 

advancing geospatial workforce development.

A Report of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee

January 2012

NGAC Products
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Geospatial Technology and Information 

Key Points:

Geoinformation is critical to a wide variety of governmental, business, and 

societal needs – from homeland security to climate change, social networking, 

transportation, natural resource management, and many other purposes.

Geospatial technology and services sector is a growing and important factor in 

the U.S. & global economies, driving significant benefits and providing highwage jobs. 

A 2012 study* estimated the U.S. geospatial industry generated approximately 

$73 billion in revenues and comprises over 500,000 high-wage jobs. 

U.S. Department of Labor recently identified the geospatial technology sector as 

one of the three technology areas that would create the greatest number of new 

jobs over the next decade. 

Geospatial data is often collected (and utilized) through partnerships involving 

multiple levels of government and other organizations 

*Boston Consulting Group 
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St. Peter’s Square – 2005

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Perceptions of Privacy are Changing...

Luca Bruno/AP
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St. Peter’s Square – 2013

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...Creating a Location Privacy Paradox

Michael Sohn/AP
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Federal Government Increasingly 

Focusing on Geolocation Privacy

White House released two “Big Data” reports in 

May 2014

President's Council of Advisors on Science and 

Technology (PCAST) report:

 Describes various types of geospatial technologies that 

collect born-analog data that contain “personal 

information”

 The geospatial community relies on many of these for 

their products and services, including:

 video from . . . overhead drones

 imaging infrared video

 synthetic aperture radar (SAR)

 LiDAR, “precise geolocation in imagery from satellites and 

drones” 
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Federal Focus (cont’d)

US v. Quartavarious Davis (11th Cir.)

 Court finds reasonable expectation of privacy 

in cell phone location data

AP reports that US Government health 

care website “leaks” personal information:

 “The scope of what is disclosed or how it 

might be used was not immediately clear, but 

it can include age, income, ZIP code, whether 

a person smokes, and if a person is pregnant”.
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Considerations: Geolocation Privacy 

Is Difficult to Define

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

 Geolocation information is “sensitive” – but not defined

 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act – Recent amendment 

included “geolocation information sufficient to identify street name 

and name of a city or town” as protected information.

Department of Energy

 Proposed Voluntary Code of Conduct for Smart Grid

 Protect “[a]all geographic subdivisions smaller than a state, 

including street address, city, county, precinct, census block, zip 

code, and their equivalent geo-codes”; 

Federal Court Cases

 US v. Jones – Does using a device to track a suspect in public 

places for 30 days violate 4th Amendment?

 “Mosaic” theory – collection of location information over time
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Considerations: Geoinformation is 

More Ubiquitous

Geoinformation is collected (or can 

be inferred) directly and indirectly, 

from many different sources and 

through a variety of means 

(sensors)

- Each time we go out in public, 

we share our location to 

strangers

- We would never disclose credit 

card information or medical 

records to them

- Can we regulate some 

collections but not others?
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Considerations: Fragile Ecosystem

Government, industry and citizens 

are both providers and users of 

geoinformation

- They all collect, use and share 

geoinformation, often 

simultaneously

- Government relies upon private 

sector and increasingly the 

crowd to provide critical 

geoinformation

- Laws, policies, etc. that impact 

one segment will have a ripple 

effect throughout the entire 

geospatial ecosystem
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Other Unique Characteristics of 

Geolocation From a Privacy Perspective

Temporal component of geoinformation is often more 

important from a privacy perspective

Location privacy concerns vary based upon age, 

gender, religion, culture, etc.

Perceived privacy concerns involving geolocation 

information are much more varied

 Range from stalking to spam texting
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Concerns of Geospatial Community 

Embedded geospatial technologies and data are critical to 

existing and future functioning of the public sector, 

industry, and commerce 

Geospatial products and services are increasingly created 

using geospatial data from a variety of sources (Federal, 

State, local, Tribal, industry, crowd-sourced, etc.)

 Different definitions of protected “geoinformation” will make it 

difficult and expensive to aggregate varying data sets.

Regulatory or statutory changes affecting geospatial 

privacy, if not carefully crafted, could have significant 

adverse impacts

Geospatial community has not been actively involved in 

policy discussions related to geospatial privacy
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Conclusions/Next Steps

Geospatial privacy is an emerging issue – needing 

collaboration & dialogue between privacy & 

geospatial communities

Privacy community utilize FGDC/NGAC as a resource 

for input/reaction on geospatial privacy issues

Identify points of contact in respective organizations 

Identify follow-up study questions/additional 

information needed

FGDC/NGAC glad to brief individual agencies on geo 

privacy issues

Invite CIOC privacy subcommittee to meet with FGDC
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Contact Information:

 Ivan DeLoatch (ideloatch@usgs.gov)

 John Mahoney (jmahoney@usgs.gov)

 Kevin Pomfret (kdpomfret@gmail.com)

 Doug Richardson (drichardson@aag.org)