Abstract
This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the topic) of data security is also discussed. Personal information and privacy legislations in two countries, Canada and the UK, are covered, as well as some examples of recent research projects and events about the subject. Select highlights from a June 2009 URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) workshop entitled 'Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality of Geographic Data in Health Research' are then presented. The paper concludes by briefly charting the complexity of the domain and the many challenges associated with it, and proposing a novel, 'one stop shop' case-based reasoning framework to streamline the provision of clear and individualised guidance for the design and approval of new research projects (involving geographical identifiers about individuals), including crisp recommendations on which specific privacy-preserving solutions and approaches would be suitable in each case.
Highlights
Definitions–the security-confidentiality-privacy triad In micro-scale geographical analyses involving data about specific individuals, data security, confidentiality and privacy form an intertwined triad
This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals
The paper goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services
Summary
Definitions–the security-confidentiality-privacy triad In micro-scale geographical analyses involving data about specific individuals, data security, confidentiality and privacy form an intertwined triad. Moving beyond conventional GIS research and geographical analyses, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets are rapidly gaining location awareness and wireless Web connectivity, promising new spatial technology applications and services (e.g., [31,32,33]), which will yield vast amounts of spatial information and online maps that can even reveal users' whereabouts in real time These novel spatial tools and services are certainly opening many new useful possibilities, but are not without their challenging security and privacy concerns [34,35]. Because of the widespread adoption of GIS-light Internet applications, and cheap and easy-to-use mobile mapping devices (for example, ones which can tag pictures with coordinates), health related spatial confidentiality is no longer the concern of only geographic information scientists, or even GIS users, and of a far broader range of academics and other people
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