MapSafe: A complete tool for achieving geospatial data sovereignty

Abstract

Sensitive geographic data are invaluable assets for the people to whom they belong and their disclosure should be decided by the sovereign data owner (SDO). Due to several high‐profile data breaches and business models that commercialize user data, the need for new approaches to geoprivacy and data sovereignty has grown. We propose MapSafe, a client web application that first obfuscates datasets using donut masking or hexagonal binning, separately, and thereafter implements a multi‐level encryption scheme that permits SDOs to share the final encrypted volume containing the geospatial information when they choose and at a level of detail which they are comfortable. The authenticity verification of the volume is facilitated by storing the hash value corresponding to the encrypted volume immutably on the Blockchain as a public record. Our approach places geoprivacy under data guardians'’ control, and its integration capabilities promote its adoption in existing and future geospatial web systems.

A Usable Encryption Solution for File-Based Geospatial Data within a Database File System

“…This has not only raised concerns around offshore data security and privacy but also the legal and privacy frameworks that the data are subject to. The MapSafe browserbased application [44] and the recent integration of its features in GeoNode [45], permit sovereign data owners to carry out geomasking, encryption, and blockchain notarisation security functions from within the browser by themselves. This furnishes a complete data sovereignty application for safeguarding and verifying geospatial datasets when shared via the cloud without reliance on a third party.…”

“…Even if the encrypted data and the decryption algorithm are somehow obtained, the adversary will not be able to access the encryption keys stored in a database, which, in turn, are encrypted with another key stored in the Oracle Wallet. For sharing these datasets outside the enterprise with individuals having varied access levels, the MapSafe geoprivacy tool [44] can be used, which offers a complete approach for safeguarding and verifying geospatial datasets when passed over the network (see Section 2).…”

Prevalence Distribution of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the City of Osorno (Chile) in 2018, and Its Association with Fine Particulate Matter PM2.5 Air Pollution

“…Also, feature binning was carried out to increase the visualization capability by using ArcGIS Pro 3.1 (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA, 2023) [29]. Feature binning aggregates large amounts of point features into dynamic polygon bins that vary through scaled levels of detail, and a single bin represents all features within its boundaries at that level of detail [30].…”