Ordnance Survey urges smartphone apps to swear off exploitative location tracking

Ordnance Survey is best known for its paper maps but provides detailed location data to companies

Credit: SSPL

The UK’s national mapping agency has urged technology companies to avoid exploiting location data gathered through smartphones, saying they risk intruding into people’s private lives and undermining trust.

Ordnance Survey, the 230-year-old organisation best known for its detailed paper maps of Britain, is among a group of organisations urging apps to sign a charter committing to the ethical use of location data.

It comes amid growing concerns that data gathered from smartphones is sold to advertisers or bundled with other information to identify and track users.

The group, the Locus Charter community, includes Ordnance Survey, the American Geographical Society and Omidyar Network, the philanthropic organisation created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. It is launching a campaign asking location data companies to sign a 10-point charter including preventing identification of individuals, collecting the minimum amount of data, and acknowledging the impact of using large amounts of location data.

Although Ordnance Survey — which dates back to 18th-century attempts to map Scotland to crush rebellions — is best known for its folding maps, today it mostly provides comprehensive data to companies that rely on detailed topographical information.

Locus Charter principles

While its data business competes with the likes of Google and Apple’s maps, and the companies’ smartphone apps have cut into sales of paper maps, Ordnance Survey’s head of data Lisa Allen said the effort was not about drawing attention to tech giants’ heavy use of data. 

“There’s an educational piece where we need to understand how our data is used and location is one part of that. It’s the one we are closest to and can shine a light on.”

Google has repeatedly come under fire for the way its mapping application and other software continually collects and logs location data, although its information has been used to monitor movement trends during lockdown.

The Benchmark Initiative, an organisation backed by Ordnance Survey and the Omidyar Network dedicated to responsible use of data, said a lack of trust in location sharing had hit confidence in initiatives such as the Covid-19 track and trace scheme. “If we want location technology to fulfil its potential as an effective tool for public good, then it must enjoy a high degree of public confidence,” the Benchmark Initiative’s Denise McKenzie said.