SDI Convergence - Nederlandse Commissie voor Geodesie - KNAW

Without prejudice to the general data protection legislation, it is possible that special
data protection legislation is applicable, for example for police data. However, this has
no influence on the applicability of the general data protection principles.
Technical possibilities for large scale collection and analysis of personal data, including
spatial data and telecommunications data make it much easier, for example, for law
enforcement agencies to compare these data with so called risk profiles. As a result,
the privacy of groups of citizens is at stake because they are becoming more transparent
to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It also enhances the risk of mistakes
being made because criminal investigations could then be extended to cover everyone
(Nouwt, 2008; Vedder et al., 2007).
5. CONCLUSIONS
Legal norms are important for governments to demarcate the borders for collecting and
using location-based information about citizens without interfering with their right to
privacy. For some politicians, it is obvious that citizens have less reasonable expectations
of privacy in public places. However, from ECtHR case law, we can conclude that
the right to privacy also exists in public places where citizens can be monitored and
information about them can be collected. From a legal perspective, governments are
only allowed to collect location-based information about citizens when the powers to do
so are in accordance with the law and there is a pressing social need to collect this
information. Furthermore, collecting and further processing of personal data must be in
accordance with the general data protection principles. Legal guidelines, however, are
not sufficient to give direction to socially desirable applications of LBS in public policy
(Onsrud, 2008). Governments should be critical towards the policy and societal goals
they wish to attain by using LBS. When interacting with citizens, they should be aware
of the conflicting values of the subject, citoyen and client role in order to avoid the extremes
of Orwell, Athens and Soft Sister.
REFERENCES
Ahas, R. and U. Mark (2005). Location Based Services-New Challenges for Planning
and Public Administration? Futures, 37(6): 547-561.
Dobson, J.E. and P.E. Fisher (2003). Geoslavery - Society Must Contemplate a New
Form of Slavery, Characterized by Location Control, IEEE Technology & Society
Magazine: a Publication of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology,
22(1): 47-52.
Council of Europe (1981), Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to
Automatic Processing of Personal Data, at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/
Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=108&CM=8&DF=8/27/2008&CL=ENG.
Davis, B. (2003). “Technoism: will loss of freedom unleash the voice of dissent?”, International
Symposium on Technology and Society: Crime Prevention, Security and
Design, September 26-28 2003, pp. 19-24.
ECtHR (2000). Rotaru v. Romania: European Court of Human Rights, Judgment of 4
May 2000, no. 28341/95, at: http://www.echr.coe.int/echr/.
ECtHR (2001). P.G. and J.H. v. The United Kingdom: European Court of Human
Rights, Judgment of 25 September 2001, no. 44787/98, at: http://www.echr.coe.
int/echr/.
85