Abstract

Day 1 -

Due to the flight cancellation, Prof. Dr. Grant McKenzie’s invited talk has been postponed to Tuesday, September 19^th - 10h-11h00

Invited talk: A Place-based Approach to Geoprivacy

While it is increasingly necessary in today's digital society, sharing personal location information comes at a cost. Sharing one's precise place of interest, such as Compass Coffee, enables a range of location-based services but substantially reduces an individual's privacy. Methods have been developed to obfuscate and anonymize location data while still maintaining a degree of utility. The difficulty lies in the fact that most of these methods were originally developed for abstract geometric objects. However, in reality, these geometric objects represent people and places and exist in a world where other information pertaining to the same subject may be available. The availability and accessibility of contextual data have changed the game. In this talk, I will provide an overview of how the concept of place has influenced geographic information science and, more specifically, location privacy research.

Webex link:  https://liser.webex.com/liser/j.php?MTID=m0d37e605b9bb7a91c1f6d9b3a8ce84e2

Day 2 Tuesday, September 19^th - 14h-17h30

Workshop: Data Privacy Methods in Geospatial Data Science

Any advancement in technology is accompanied by new concerns regarding its ethical use and impacts on privacy. While privacy is notoriously difficult to define, especially in the context of technology usage, it can be described as the ability of an individual or group to maintain control over their personal information. Like many ethical concepts, this definition evolves with changes in societal and technical norms. The emergence of machine learning and related artificial intelligence techniques has once again shifted societal concerns regarding the privacy of our personal information, socio-demographic group membership, and data. Among various types of data, location data holds particular sensitivity as it can link information from multiple sources and be used to infer a wide range of personal details. As a result, data privacy has become one of the most significant ethical discussions within the field of geospatial data science. In this workshop, I will begin by providing a detailed overview of current data privacy methods employed in spatial data science and GeoAI. This will be followed by a hands-on tutorial using Python and Jupyter Notebooks to explore leading approaches to preserving location privacy. Ample time will be allocated for discussion and questions.

Webex link:  https://liser.webex.com/liser/j.php?MTID=mf3559524fee37de85241e7b520bdb28e

Biography

Grant McKenzie is an associate professor of spatial data science in the Department of Geography at McGill University. At McGill, Grant leads the Platial Analysis Lab, an interdisciplinary research group that works at the intersection of information science and behavioral geography. Much of Grant's work examines how human activity patterns vary within and between local regions and global communities. This has driven his applied interests in geoprivacy and micro-mobility services as well as the broader role that geographic information science plays at the intersection of information technologies and society. Grant is a founding member of the Seattle-based start-up consultancy Spatial Development International (now part of Locana) and has worked as a data scientist and software developer for a range of NGOs and leading technology companies.