I wrote about an important geolocation privacy case currently from California here.  It bears following, as does this decision from the Illinois Supreme Court.  The Illinois decision is an important one because in many privacy cases courts require a plaintiff to show harm, which can be difficult to do. If plaintiffs do not have to overcome that high bar in order to bring a lawsuit, many more will follow.  ..read more

Engadget is reporting that the Los Angeles City Attorney has filed a complaint against the company behind The Weather Channel App (the "App") claiming its collection of geolocation information violated the state's unfair competition law. The claim alleges that the App does not provide consumers adequate disclosure as to how geolocation information is shared with third parties, including affiliates of IBM, the company's parent. Specifically, the complaint alleges that when seeking consent to collect a customer's geolocation information, the App only refers to providing personalized weather info ..read more

Each year I try to summarize what I believe are the major spatial law and policy stories over the past 12 months. I try to focus on issues that cut across both legal and policy disciplines as well as technology domains. I try not to just focus on those that get the most media attention, but also issues that I think represent broader trends of where spatial law and policy is headed. (As I mentioned recently on Twitter, in preparing the 2018 review, I came across the 2010 review in this post. It is worth a quick read, even if just to see how much as changed, and how much has remained the s ..read more

SPATIAL LAW AND POLICY UPDATE "Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law" LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity Social Fitness Apps May Be More Harmful to User Privacy Than You Think  (CPO) People love fitness trackers, but should employers give them out?  (Financial Times) Ontario Court of Appeal finds high school girls have no reasonable expectation of privacy in surreptitious filming of their breasts by teacher at school  (Teresa Scassa) Data Quality/Errors Farming drone imagery often inaccurate  (Phys.org) Licensing/Intellectual Property ..read more

LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity How protectionist policies can impact digital developments  (IAPP) Facebook may stop the data leaks, but it’s too late: Cambridge Analytica’s models live on  (MIT Review) Dunedin mother's threat to shoot down drone that filmed her children in their backyard  (NZ Herald) The necessity of a radical review of cybersecurity in space to avoid potentially catastrophic attacks  (The Space Review) Google loses landmark 'right to be forgotten' case  (The Guardian) Smart planning for smart cities  (Hill Times ..read more

SPATIAL LAW AND POLICY UPDATE "Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law" LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity Amazon's idea for employee-tracking wearables raises concerns  (CNN) Uber implements HIPAA compliance program for new patient transportation service  (IAPP) Licensing/Intellectual Property Rights Court Says Scraping Websites And Creating Fake Profiles Can Be Protected By The First Amendment  (TechDirt) Government     Spatial Data Infrastructure/Open Data     THE TRICKY ETHICS OF THE NFL'S N ..read more

SPATIAL LAW AND POLICY UPDATE "Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law" LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity This person has revealed everything Facebook and Google has on you. And it’s terrifying  (Independent) The Future Of Location Data And Privacy  (GIS User) Jaywalkers Under Surveillance in Shenzhen Soon To Be Punished Via Text Messages (South China Morning Post) Data Quality/Errors Sensor firm Velodyne 'baffled' by Uber self-driving death  (BBC) After Uber Crash, Legal Departments Can Watch Carefully, Work on Disaster Plans&nb ..read more

SPATIAL LAW AND POLICY UPDATE "Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law" LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity Strava will refresh its heat map every month to clear it of data that recently went private  (The Verve) Location data sharing: What are the concerns around privacy?  (Geospatial World) Licensing/Intellectual Property Rights The state of licensing information (or, how do we know what we know?)  (TideLift) Government     Spatial Data Infrastructure/Open Data     London to run public survey on ..read more

LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity EU Data Privacy Rules and Penalties Reach America: Are You Ready? (JD Supra)  Advances in mobile location services and what it means for privacy (Research Gate)  Court Confirms Right to Be Forgotten Is Not Absolute (JD Supra)   Data Re-Identification (Health Data Exploration Project)  Employer Denied Access to Employee GPS Data  (The National Law Review) Your Shareable Google Maps Lists May Be Really Interesting To Advertisers (NPR) Data Quality/Errors Data governance as an accelerator, not a r ..read more

SPATIAL LAW AND POLICY UPDATE "Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law" LEGAL DISCIPLINES Privacy/Data Protection/Cybersecurity Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act Introduced in US Congress (JD Supra) Australia Introdces Mandatory Data Breach Notification Scheme (Hogan Lovells) Data from connected CloudPets teddy bears leaked and ransomed, exposing kids' voice messages (Troy Hunt)  Fighting Echo Warrant, Amazon Has Scant Law to Draw On (Corporate Counsel)    Italian Data Protection Authority turns spotlight on SPID, call centers and the national statistical s ..read more