Management and mitigation of location privacy violations: Case study analysis of U.S. local governments

Abstract

Location privacy is a growing challenge in today’s geo-referenced world. This exploratory study investigates the management of location privacy and mitigation of its violations through case studies of six city and county governments in the United States. It focuses on why or why not local governments have instituted location privacy policies, how they incorporate location privacy in their management, and how the managerial processes of location privacy policy formulation and implementation could be conceptualized. It follows an inductive approach, analyzing within-case findings, identifying cross-case commonalities, and inducing propositions. Findings show that there is no consistent definition of location privacy, with each local government developing its own definition and attendant approaches to privacy policymaking, management, and protection. It induces seven propositions and posits a research model centered on the concept of managerial cognition. Practical implications for city and county management are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Geographic information systems
• GIS
• innovation
• local government
• location privacy
• management
• managerial cognition
• mitigation
• personal information
• privacy protection
• spatial
• strategies

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the remarkable ethical insights and support from Dr. Carlo Carrascoso and the keen and very helpful advice on management and GIS in city and county governments by Mitch Cochran.