5.2 Facing sensitive data

The handling and management of geographic data involves many cases of facing personal or sensitive data. Depending on the acquisition and the use of this data, we can mention :

• Data collected in the field. Indeed, during a data collection activity with local populations, depending on the subject matter, one may have to collect sensitive data on the people interviewed. In the same way, the processing and management of the data collected could be a case of managing sensitive data, if the data are considered sensitive and personal. Therefore, special care should be taken in the choice of techniques and methods for processing such data.
• A second case related to the handling of sensitive data also occurs when sharing data internally within a team, or when sharing data externally involving one or more organizations. The last case sometimes happens when organizations collaborate on common projects.
• Another point of attention when handling sensitive data is the sharing of “finished products “ that may contain such data. For example, the publication or sharing of maps, web applications produced that contain personal data. It will be necessary to think about the issues of confidentiality and access rights to these resources, for example limiting access to only those who need to know. This is the need-to-know principle