Where can I find out more?

If you require any further support in addressing ethical issues in your planned project or incorporating ethical principles, please contact the UK Statistics Authority Data Ethics team or visit our webpages for further information on the support services that we offer.

These guidelines have focussed on ethical issues as they arise in the context of geospatial data and statistics – there are a wealth of other sources available that relate to geospatial data more widely.

You can find out more information at the following sources:

The Geospatial Commission

• The Geospatial Commission is an expert committee within the Cabinet Office, responsible for setting the UK’s geospatial strategy and coordinating public sector geospatial activity.

Ethics

• UK Statistics Authority’s ethical principles and ethics self-assessment tool.
• The Locus Charter provide 10 overarching principles in the ethical and responsible use of location data.
• UNICEF provide guidance on ethical considerations when using geospatial technologies in evidence generation.
• The Royal Geographical Society have collated a range of resources to support the consideration of ethical issues in GIS.
• The British Geological Survey have developed a research ethics and research integrity policy related to the ethical use of data in this space.

Legislation

• The Data Protection Act includes discussion on the types of data which should be considered sensitive and your responsibilities to protect them.
• The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) provide guidance on the use of location data (including from mobile phones).

Other interesting sources

• Nature article on the privacy-conscientious use of mobile phone data.
• Final report of the Location Tech Task Force on mobile location integrity.
• Blog post by Future of Privacy Forum focused on location data.
• Clear Your Tracks provides a prototype for engaging and informing the public about the location data that is captured via their mobile phone.
• Benchmark Initiative project summary blog with links to further resources exploring how to measure representation in mobility data and protect people’s privacy.
• Environment and Planning D: Society and Space article exploring the ethics of tracking mobility using mobile phone data.
• UK Parliament POST note on COVID-19 and the digital divide.
• The Gather project provides an example of the use of public location data.
• Insider article on the Australian bushfire maps.
• James Cheshire (UCL)’s discussion on the importance of picking the right ranges and colours on mapping Next slide please.
• The LSE’s archive of Charles Booth’s poverty maps of London.
• Current research programme exploring willingness to share different types of data in the context of a changing pandemic alert level, including mobility data.
• MIT news feature on the potential to identify sensitive information about people from mobility data and corresponding article published in IEEE Transactions on Big Data.
• Harvard Business Review article exploring the hidden biases in big data, including the impact of digital divides on pothole mapping.
• A range of books and articles also discuss gender biases in data and other data-related issues that may be of interest, such as the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications article Gender Gaps in Urban Mobility and the recently published book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez.
• Danny Dorling’s seminal note on the value and use of Cartograms.