{"id":773729,"date":"2026-06-30T10:50:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T17:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=773729"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:32:19","slug":"ethical-gis-starts-with-committing-to-the-locus-charter","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/ethical-gis-starts-with-committing-to-the-locus-charter","title":{"rendered":"Ethical GIS Starts with Committing to the Locus Charter"},"author":6921,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[472991,401,10992],"tags":[444031,384022,161922,491802,493534],"arcnews_issues":[493539],"class_list":["post-773729","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gis","category-government","category-managing-gis","tag-ethics","tag-gis-leadership","tag-gis-management","tag-gpn","tag-locus-charter","arcnews_issues-summer-2026","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"How should GIS managers address ethical obligations to individuals and societies? With a GIS Code of Ethics.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"GIS management is a demanding yet rewarding career. GIS doesn\u2019t come ready-to-use, right out of the box. Every GIS is a custom system built with data, hardware, software, apps, and a team of GIS professionals\u2014each with their own role to play. The GIS manager is the glue that holds this system together.\r\n\r\nGIS managers must focus on the ethics of their teams\u2019 work and the industry as a whole. The GIS Code of Ethics\u2014originally developed by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, or URISA (now the Geospatial Professional Network, or GPN)\u2014requires GIS practitioners to be proactively ethical with regard to society, employers and funders, colleagues, the profession, and individuals.\r\n\r\nIt comes pretty naturally to be ethical toward employers and funders. But how should GIS managers address other ethical obligations?\r\n\r\nThe Hazards of Data Protection<\/strong>\r\n\r\nPeople generally entrust money and power to government agencies so they can provide benefits and services to society and the individuals who live within it. Many GIS operations support these benefits and essential services. This means that many GIS departments manage large databases that contain lots of data about society, plus people\u2019s personal information.\r\n\r\nDanger abounds. Have you ever received a letter from a law firm stating that you are a member of a class action lawsuit? Put \u201clargest 2025 data breaches\u201d into a search engine or an AI-powered chatbot and see how many personal records were compromised. This happens to government agencies, too. A data breach can cost a local government millions of dollars. There are now consulting companies whose sole business is to advise agencies and companies on how to respond to data breaches and regain public trust.\r\n\r\nA variety of national and intergovernmental regulations apply to GIS. The European Union has the General Data Protection Regulation that strengthens individuals\u2019 data rights and unifies data protection laws. Canada has the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act that regulates how organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information. And the United States has a variety of laws and agencies\u2014including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Red Flags Rule\u2014that aim to safeguard personal data.\r\n\r\nGIS managers, especially those who work in government, need to be proactive about protecting data. That\u2019s where the Locus Charter comes in.\r\n

What the Locus Charter Is\u2014and Why It Matters<\/h2>\r\nThe Locus Charter<\/a> is a proposed set of international principles that support ethical, responsible practices when using location data. The charter\u2019s 10 guiding principles enable organizations to commit to the ethical use of location data across all their activities.\r\n\r\nThe Locus Charter evolved from an initiative of the American Geographical Society\u2019s EthicalGEO project called the Benchmark Initiative. Benchmark consisted of 10 workshops, held from 2019 to 2020, that brought together thought leaders from around the world to draft the Locus Charter. Launched in March 2021, it states:"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"

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. \u201cLocus\u201d is the Latin word for \u201cplace.\u201d<\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The Locus Charter proposes the following guiding principles:\r\n