Research combining a variety of intensive geographically-referenced data streams is spreading across many scientific domains, ranging from environmental science to transportation to epidemiology, and opportunities to create new multi-disciplinary and data-intensive scientific collaborations are expanding. Yet, the unique characteristics of georeferenced data present special challenges to such collaborations. These data are highly identifiable when presented in maps and other visualizations. The potential opportunities and benefits of collaboration are constrained by the need to protect the locational privacy and confidentiality of subjects in research using georeferenced data. This research addresses the challenges facing geospatial data-intensive research communities by focusing on the unique confidentiality characteristics of geospatial data and their visualizations, on disclosure risks, and on the potential for sharing geospatial data within a Virtual Data Enclave.
The Association of American Geographers and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan will engage the geospatial research community to (1) conduct research on the unique confidential characteristics of large georeferenced data sets and on viable ways to manipulate these data and their geovisualizations to protect confidentiality and privacy; (2) conduct research on methods and procedures to assess and reduce disclosure risks in maps and other research projects derived from locationally identifiable data; (3) conduct research regarding the viability of sharing and archiving confidential georeferenced research data using a Virtual Data Enclave to enable sophisticated analyses of these data under conditions that protect the privacy of research subjects, and (4) intensively test confidentiality methods within the geospatial Virtual Data Enclave to reduce disclosure risk and develop standards for disclosure review.
Advances in geographic technologies (such as geographic information systems, computer mapping, and GPS) have provided new and increasingly powerful tools for researchers to visualize and analyze a wide range of phenomena ranging from the environment to transportation to disease prevention. Geographic analyses and visualizations of geographic data associated with such phenomena have created opportunities for innovation and advanced research across a broad range of disciplines. Yet, analysis and mapping of individual-level data associated with specific locations (i.e., georeferenced data) may reveal patterns of interaction between people and their social and physical environments. Individuals become more identifiable when their individual locations (e.g., home or work) and itineraries (e.g., travel to work) are available. This research will examine ways to protect the confidentiality and locational privacy of geographic data collected and shared among researchers. Specifically, this project will conduct research on the unique challenges to using and sharing confidential georeferenced research data and their visualizations, including: (1) the development and testing of technologies and procedures to protect confidentiality of geographic data while also allowing access to and sharing of important data among researchers, and (2) the development of standards for disclosure of information that protect individuals' privacy.
