The Locus Charter proposes that wider, shared understanding of risks and solutions relating to uses of location data can improve standards of practice, and help protect individuals and the public interest. We hope the Charter can improve understanding of risk, so those can be managed, and the many benefits of geospatial technologies can be realized for individuals and societies.
“Locus” is the Latin word for “place.”
OUR VISION
A world where location data is utilized for the betterment of the world and all species that live in it.
WHO WE ARE
An international collaboration of governments, organizations and individual practitioners seeking to ensure the ethical & responsible use of location data throughout the world.
AUDIENCE
The Charter is written for individuals and organizations who use location data or have responsibility for activities that create, collect, analyze and store location data.
FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
THE CHARTER
Since 2019, the Benchmark and EthicalGEO initiatives have supported international dialogues with geospatial professionals and organizations, to explore what it means to use location data responsibly in different contexts. These dialogues have strongly suggested that common international principles could help users of geospatial data make more informed decisions, and provide the basis for communication with people affected by those decisions.
Developing common global principles must be a collaborative activity, respecting international contexts and perspectives. The Locus Charter as presented here was developed through our initial international workshops, and forms the basis for further collaboration.
GET INVOLVED
We are inviting interested individuals and organizations to use these principles, share them, help us improve them, and join a network of people working together to promote ethical use of location data.
For more information on how you can get involved, please submit an interest form by clicking the link below.
