The New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association (NJAPA) Publishes “GIS and Privacy”
[UPDATE March 25, 2008] Scott A. Grams - Executive Director, GISCI, wrote to me to point out that the GISCI Code of Ethics and Rules of Conduct interrelate to these issues.
The New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association (NJAPA) published my article "GIS and Privacy" in its 2008 March-April bulletin "Plan This!", in the Opinion Corner (page 24 of the PDF). The article originally appeared in Directions Magazine in 2005, and is now being republished with minor updates.
With more non-GIS professionals (such as planners) becoming exposed to GIS all the time, the NJAPA thought it important to educate its membership on some of the non-technical issues surrounding GIS.
From the article:
“Are GIS systems privacy intruders, or do they merely expose unrealistic privacy expectations? I think it is more of the latter.
[…]Seminars dealing with privacy issues in GIS include examples of how a clever burglar can use the New Jersey Open Public Review Act (OPRA) to gain access to information, and then use GIS to analyze that information, in order to determine where to strike next. […]An unlikely scenario, in my opinion."
Posted by Atanas Entchev at 3/22/2008 10:51 AM 
Categories: New Jersey, Opinion, GIS, NJ, ENTCHEV, OPRA, Online Mapping, GISCI
Tags: New Jersey NJAPA Opinion GIS NJ ENTCHEV OPRA Online Mapping GISCI APA
Categories: New Jersey, Opinion, GIS, NJ, ENTCHEV, OPRA, Online Mapping, GISCI
Tags: New Jersey NJAPA Opinion GIS NJ ENTCHEV OPRA Online Mapping GISCI APA
Planners need to embrace GIS. Almost all of the data planners deal with has a considerable geospatial component to it. In dealing with community visioning or urban design, GIS is the foundation of effectively assessing the needs of a community and creating a plan for the future. Planners that fail to see the value of GIS and thinking geospatially will be "those planners" that produce boilerplate plans that are never implemented.
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We did a comprehensive photo layer of every parcel in the city. I would say we had at least 25 instances where the home owner ran out and said they didn't want their house photographed.
I think the public wants their privacy, but if we educate them on something like "The Fire Dept gets a photo of your house on the call log" they may diminish those reservations.
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