From ken.livingston@megahits.com Wed Apr 14 12:48:02 1999 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA30902 for ; Wed, 14 Apr 1999 12:48:01 -0700 Received: from megahits.com (megahits.com [207.76.78.5]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id MAA31665 for ; Wed, 14 Apr 1999 12:48:00 -0700 Received: from megahits.com [207.76.76.100] by megahits.com with ESMTP (SMTPD32-5.01) id A0E63EA0132; Wed, 14 Apr 1999 15:47:50 EDT Message-ID: <3714F037.8A11A84B@megahits.com> Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 15:44:55 -0400 From: Ken Livingston X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.51 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: waphgis@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: WAPHGIS: GIS & privacy issues References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Usually GIS information for sensitive information is limited to a generalized area, i.e. Census Block or Zip Code. For example data from the Census bureau is grouped by Census block. I know this was an issue in some work by the Silent Spring Institute out of Newton, MA when the were mapping cancer incidences on Cape Cod, MA. In the Institute's collection of data, I believe there was a disclaimer that all information would be generalized to some geographic area, which, while ensuring some degree of privacy, may hinder epidemiological studies where specific incident location may be crucial. "Hoskins, Richard E." wrote: > Colleagues: Perhaps you can respond to the message below. Please share > your responses with the listserve if you also contact her directly. If an > > agency were to draw up a set of confidentiality guidelines, what are the > issues? Why is this important? What problems have you had displaying, > using maps with sensitive data? What guidelines or policies does your > organization have in place generally and how does that impact the use of > GIS? Have you had an instance where GIS use compromised someone's > privacy? Do you know who really knows all about this? If you have written > > about this, could we have access to your papers or a citation? > > Thanks > > Richard E. Hoskins > eMAIL: REH0303@doh.wa.gov > tel: 360-236-4270 > fax:360-236-4245 > > Washington State Public Health & GIS listserve > WAPHGIS@u.washington.edu > WA DOH & NW Center for Public Health Practice > at the Univ WA in Seattle > > ********************* Forwarding Message ********************* > Dick > > We've been discussing this topic in light of the agency work around > confidentiality and in a data release group that is working to develop an > > agency policy around data release. We are looking into feeding this topic > > into a regional conference, and I was interested in knowing if there are > any "industry" guidelines around GIS and health information in > particular, and if you could point me to those or to knowledgeable > persons that we could discuss with or invite as presenters. Thanks for > the help! > > Vicki Hohner, Data Products Manager > Hospital and Patient Data Systems > WA State Department of Health > Phone: (360) 236-4211 > FAX: (360) 664-8579 > MS: 7811 > Internet: VKH0303@DOH.WA.GOV -- Kenneth M. Livingston Assistant Town Planner http://www.megahits.com/planning Southington Town Hall 75 Main Street Southington, CT 06489 860-276-6248 fax 860-628-8669 ken.livingston@megahits.com .