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The Geospatial Web promises a wealth of cool new applications that will map people and objects from real space into cyberspace. Users will be able to connect with each other, learn about their environment, and find products and services they are interested in linked to their current location. This is an exciting proposition but it poses significant privacy risks. The recent public uproar when Google and other search companies were asked to reveal search terms to the government demonstrates that users demand privacy in the things that they look for on the Web. This expectation will only increase when the Geospatial Web links their online activity to their location in real space. People may want to find stuff--but will they be equally willing to be found?
Lauren Gelman of Stanford University explain aspects of current U.S. law that protect users' location and online privacy, and areas where the law fails and technology must step in. If the builders of geospatial tools fail to embrace privacy-promoting design, the potential of next-generation web applications may never be realized. However, thinking about this at the inception of this new location-based technological frontier, and designing an architecture that protects user privacy, will pay off in the long run as people are more willing to embrace cool new tools knowing their privacy will be protected.
Lauren Gelman is the associate director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society (CIS), where she writes and speaks about the interaction of new technologies and the law, represents clients in internet litigation and advocacy matters, consults with businesses on new technologies, and supervises students in the Cyberlaw Clinic. She also teaches Law, Technology and Privacy at the Law School and is an Adjunct Lecturer in Stanford's School of Engineering. Her current research focuses on the legal implications of technologies that increase citizens' opportunity to participate online. She currently sits on the board of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and is a member of the California Bar.
Prior to joining CIS in 2002, Gelman was corporate counsel for RealNames Corporation. She also spent six years in Washington, DC as the public policy director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and as the associate director of Public Policy for ACM, the largest association of computer scientists in the world.
Gelman received a B.S. in Biology and Society from Cornell University, an M.S. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University, and her law degree from Georgetown University. She served on the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Secure Flight Working Group at the Department of Homeland Security.
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