From rhoskins@home.com Fri Apr 16 17:10:05 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 RAA21210 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:10:04 -0700 Received: from ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (siteadm@ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com [24.0.2.66]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id RAA07206 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:10:04 -0700 Received: from c501552a ([24.5.121.123]) by ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (Netscape Mail Server v2.02) with SMTP id AAA16997 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:10:03 -0700 Message-ID: <00ba01be8866$a24dc500$7b790518@olmpi1.wa.home.com> From: "Richard E. Hoskins" To: References: <004c01be880a$7b2ab700$7b790518@olmpi1.wa.home.com> <004c01be8847$783a6120$cadd868b@doh.health.nsw.gov.au> Subject: Re: Maps? and GIS and privacy Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:09:59 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 Yes, Tim. You got a big point. Try 1619 Dickinson, zip 98502 and if you look carefully enough you can see my Bar-B-Que. Of course it would take not much to link my health records to this and see that I have a little too high cholesterol but my blood pressure is OK, and that I had an ulcer at one time. (and some other things) The potential for abuse is, indeed, very very large. That is why I showed it. Why should anyone have access to this info on the Internet? Wh0 should be able to look at any location and determine who lives there just because your left mouse button works? My yellow bike was taken out of my yard last night. Can you see it? I think GIS & public health people need to offer a solution before the knee jerk of public and or politicians decides for us. My state circles around this issue constantly. If some had their way - no access to any data about anyone period. And I mean period. Not accessible to the State Epidemiologist, and the rest of them. This would destroy public health. No assessment, no surveillance. ... no public health.\ Dick Hoskins ----- Original Message ----- From: Tim Churches To: Sent: Friday, April 16, 1999 1:26 PM Subject: Maps? and GIS and privacy > Richard E. Hoskins writes: > > Interesting site: See below > > > Goto http://www.geodata.org then select the "Create a Map" button. > > > When you zoom in close enough you can turn on aerial photos and > > > 50 other map layers. Email back if you have trouble. > > This is an impressive facility which illustrates the threat which GIS can > pose to privacy and confidentiality - if misapplied. Go to the above Web > site and click on Create a Map. Scroll down to the form search section and > enter Abrahamson as the surname and click search. Click on the link to view > the results, then click on the link of the single search result: Abrahamson, > Marlene and Fred. This will show a red shaded land parcel where Marlene and > Fred live. Scroll down and click on the check box to display image data. > While there, you will be able to learn Fred & Marlene's address details: > > OWNER: ABRAHAMSON, MARLENE & FRED > Address: PO BOX 2658 > City: OLYMPIA > State: WA > > Parcel#: 11907120100 > Site Address: 8510 NE GREENFIELD CT > Site City: OLYMPIA > Site Zip: 98506 > > Now scroll up and click a few times on the lower right corner (sorry, SE > corner) of their block to zoom in and examine their house. They live on a > wooded block with a cleared strip up the middle, like a golf fairway. They > have a modest bungalow and drive a dark coloured car. Hey, there's Fred > standing in front of it. He appears to be wearing a toupee... The house is > very secluded - if I were a burglar (and weren't typing this in Australia), > I might give Marlene and Fred a visit. > > OK, no health data on Marlene and Fred, but the potential for abuse is > clear. What distinguishes this example is the linking of what appears to be > public domain land ownership data with remote imaging in an Internet > accessible GIS. Although each of the databases alone are fairly innocuous, > linking them in a GIS and then making it globally available makes the sum > far more dangerous than the parts. > > Tim Churches > Sydney, Australia > > .