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F. Obex, G. Retscher:
"Ethical and Political Responsibility in Location Based Services - The Need of Implementing Ethical Thinking in Our Research Field";
Talk: 11th International Symposium on Location-Based Services LBS 2014, Wien (invited); 2014-11-26 - 2014-11-28; in: "11th International Symposium on Location-Based Services LBS 2014", (2014), 14 pages.

Rapid technical developments in Location Based Services (LBS) lead to new applications and possibilities in many personal and institutional sectors. LBS became a powerful instrument in predicting consumer behaviour and preventing crime. The dichotomy between privacy and security leads to new ethical issues that have to be addressed. We are willing to reveal our personal data at many occasions to get a small benefit or more convenience in daily life. Although we are always lagging behind the latest developments in respect to data protection and the privacy issue, the politics constantly has to adopt the law with regards to LBS, privacy and anonymity. The trend is towards continuous localisation and tracking of certain people or even the whole population. Users of electronic devices should get the right to withdraw their consent for transferring location based and other personal data at any time. They also should get clear and comprehensive information when and for what they give away their personal data and location and their further use. The LBS research community should keep privacy and ethical implications in mind from the very beginning of their research projects and already ongoing research activities. Meanwhile LBS influences every individualīs life, hence ethical issues have to be debated within the research community and taught our students. Technical Universities and especially the developers of LBS can no longer keep their credibility without cooperating with ethical experts or an ethical committee.

Privacy, values and norms, ethical committee, politics

http://lbs2014.org/sites/default/files/u3/proceedings_web.pdf