A Geoprivacy by Design Guideline for Research Campaigns That Use Participatory Sensing Data. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kounadi, Ourania; Resch, Bernd
• Is Part Of: Journal of empirical research on human research ethics. Volume 13:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 203
• Page End: 222
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: geoprivacy by design -- location privacy -- spatiotemporal data -- mobile participatory sensors -- disclosure risk -- anonymization methods -- research design -- spatial analysis; Medical ethics -- Research -- Periodicals; Research -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; 174.205
• DOI: 10.1177/1556264618759877
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1556-2646

Abstract

Participatory sensing applications collect personal data of monitored subjects along with their spatial or spatiotemporal stamps. The attributes of a monitored subject can be private, sensitive, or confidential information. Also, the spatial or spatiotemporal attributes are prone to inferential disclosure of private information. Although there is extensive problem-oriented literature on geoinformation disclosure, our work provides a clear guideline with practical relevance, containing the steps that a research campaign should follow to preserve the participants' privacy. We first examine the technical aspects of geoprivacy in the context of participatory sensing data. Then, we propose privacy-preserving steps in four categories, namely, ensuring secure and safe settings, actions prior to the start of a research survey, processing and analysis of collected data, and safe disclosure of datasets and research deliverables.