Brendan main trends are currently developing in the satellite imagery industry: the increasing availability of very high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery, and the outsourcing of processing-intensive image analysis. Alongside the foreseeable improvements of facial recognition technology and other image recognition software, such synergies carry the potential for identification of individuals, and thus for privacy, data protection and ethical risks. The intent of this article is to discuss the possibility of identification of individuals through high resolution images under the broad definition provided by the general data protection regulation, and to explain the risks therein. We further suggest risk-mitigation approaches for incoming space data policies.
Air and Space Law