Protecting Privacy from Continuous High-resolution Satellite Surveillance

Privacy refers to controlling the dissemination and use of personal data, including information that is knowingly disclosed, as well as data that are unintentionally revealed as a byproduct of the use of information technologies. This paper argues that the high resolution geospatial images of our earth’s surface, produced from the earth observing satellites, can make a person visually exposed, resulting in a technological invasion of personal privacy. We propose a suitable authorization model for geospatial data (GSAM) where controlled access can be specified based on the region covered by an image with privilege modes that include view, zoom-in, overlay and identify. We demonstrate how access control can be efficiently enforced using a spatial indexing structure, called MX-RS quadtree, a variant of the MX-CIF quadtree.