Satellites and human rights: when important evidence reveals too much

[ UUID ] 24fc5ee8-dac9-459e-99b8-d1c470571f14

[ Session Name ] Satellites and human rights: when important evidence reveals too much [ Primary Space ] Openness [ Secondary Space ] Digital Inclusion

[ Submitter's Name ] Carolyn Thompson [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Freelance journalist [ Submitter's GitHub ] caroethompson

[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Annabel Church [ Other Facilitator 1's GitHub ] arc64

What will happen in your session?

We would use an interactive example to talk about investigative research techniques using satellite imagery and the privacy risks that come with them. We'll delve into the question: how far should you go to be open about your research process if your work starts identifying people's homes or people's location of death? What are the ethics of sharing geo-located, incident-specific information that could hold those perpetrating human rights abuses to account, when they also put the private information of victims or citizens in public view, potentially putting them at risk? And in some cases, low literacy levels or poor Internet penetration may mean those affected don't even know their information is out there.

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

For people to better understand the power of the new access to information we can have from satellite imagery, but also how it can breach privacy - sometimes of the most vulnerable. We'd discuss ways to make this information open without taking those risks - such as attempts at anonymizing individual data and ways to represent it on a national level. For example, if we use satellite imagery to make a public and searchable map of every burnt property in the country, we would identify individual homes. If you overlaid reports of attacks, refugees may learn their properties are destroyed or that a family member was killed through this public information.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

We would need enough dry erase markers for the participants to do the exercise with the laminated satellite images, but I'm happy to provide those.

Time needed

60 mins