As digital mapping and location-based services become integral to daily life, the issue of location privacy grows increasingly critical. This thematic session will build upon the momentum from last year and continue exploring the intersection of privacy, technology, and geography, focusing on the ethical and technological challenges associated with geospatial data collection and usage. In this thematic session, we invite papers that explore the theoretical, methodological, and applied perspectives on location privacy, spanning issues such as geodata masking, privacy risk assessment, mobility trajectories, and the ethical implications of emerging sensor technologies. The session will also highlight innovative frameworks, policy approaches, and technical solutions for enhancing privacy protections while ensuring the benefits of geospatial technologies can be fully realized.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. All accepted papers, including extended abstracts and short papers, will be archived in the session proceedings on Zenodo with assigned DOIs. We follow the same formatting requirements as SDSS 2025 which can be found at https://sdss2025.spatial-data-science.net/#cfpapers. Manuscripts should be formatted according to the LNCS template (Overleaf template here). Authors should submit their work in PDF format via EasyChair. Extended abstracts should be 1,000 to 1,500 words, and short papers 2,500 to 3,000 words, excluding references. All papers will undergo a single-blind peer review process. 

Organizers 

Hongyu Zhang, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Yue Lin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to honzhang@umass.edu