Privacy and ownership information

Many contemporary ethnographic mapping projects use innovative mapping technologies like Google Earth and Google Maps to assist in documenting indigenous connections to land.  This kind of information can be important to support indigenous governance decision-making and to foster cross-cultural understandings about the places that we live.  However, while digital and cloud-based technologies are beneficial because of their being affordable, accessible, and distributable - there is a clear need to respect indigenous communities' concerns over privacy, security, ownership, control and access to their cultural heritage and knowledge.

We are working on a white paper that draws on a careful and detailed study of current legal environment to support informed decision-making about using these technologies.

Scholarly Research Paper:  Indigenous Mapping in the Cloud: A White Paper on Privacy, Ownership, Access and Security issues for First Nations using Google Geo-Tools [PDF]