IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2022 - 98

sociocultural and economic harms that can result from it)
at a very early stage of research-the stage where individual
researchers have the possibility of applying labels responsibly
and constructively rather than merely based on convenience
and disciplinary custom. This is also discussed in
greater detail in the context of bias in the following and
in the " Ethical Opportunities in Artificial Intelligence for
Earth Observation Research " section.
AUTONOMY, FREEDOM, AND SELF-DETERMINATION,
INCLUDING NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
One of the fundamental guiding ideas of data ethics is
" enhancing protection for individual freedom, self-determination,
and integrity " [62]. When data and associated
data analysis limit individual freedom and selfdetermination,
the principles of ethics can be breached
while also violating basic human rights. Take again, for
example, the issue of slum identification using AI4EO.
Under international pressure, country governments may
use research findings to clear areas labeled as slums, dislocating
thousands from their homes and creating significant
social unrest. Or governments may be forced to
imprison illegal artisanal miners and deny them their
traditional source of livelihood. In the face of such possibilities,
AI4EO researchers need to ensure that their
research is mindful of " ground truths " beyond the accuracy
of labels. Responsible research also needs to go
beyond avoiding ethical risks (e.g., by hiding and not
disclosing geolocations) to actively changing research
approaches to address ethical concerns on the ground.
We discuss this in greater detail in the " Ethical Opportunities
in Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation
Research " section.
When applied to national contexts, the issue of selfdetermination
and autonomy can assume the form of
national sovereignty, which can be (adversely or appropriately
impacted) through international sociopolitical
pressure. For example, consider the issue of nuclear disarmament:
India's preparations to make a first effort at
testing its nuclear weapons were discovered by U.S. intelligence
via satellite-based monitoring of the test station at
Pokhran, Rajasthan. The discovery of these plans led to
large-scale international pressure to withdraw the efforts.
In a subsequent attempt, great pains were taken by Indian
nuclear and defense scientists to prevent the plans from
being discovered by U.S. satellites, leading to successful
testing without intervention from international pressure.
Despite subsequent international condemnation for going
against the ideal of nuclear disarmament, India justified
its stand based on rising armed attacks and threats
from Pakistan and China at its borders [63]. (The successful
nuclear tests were conducted in a desert area of Western
India. The efforts of Indian scientists to " hide " from
U.S. satellites to prepare for and conduct the tests were
recently dramatized in a popular Hindi movie, Paramanu:
The Story of Pokhran.)
98
DATA GOVERNANCE, OWNERSHIP, AND LICENSING
Data governance has been defined as the " exercise of authority
and control over the management of data, " with the
purpose of increasing " the value of data and minimizing
data-related cost and risk " [64]. Data governance therefore
also includes the management of data in accordance with
the requirements of the law. In the EU, data are protected
under various laws, including the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on Copyright in the
Digital Single Market (DSM). Accordingly, data governance
requires the management of issues of data privacy as well as
data ownership.
In the context of data ownership, European Parliament
directive 2019/790 on copyright and related rights
in the DSM (the so-called DSM Directive) includes two
exceptions for " text and data mining " (see articles 3 and 4
and recitals 11, 14, 15, 17, and 18). These exceptions permit
text and data mining for scientific research purposes
and are also important for AI/ML research that relies on
(big) data [65]. Absent these exceptions, the mining of
text and data from any source could amount to copyright
and database rights infringement. While these exceptions
were introduced to support, among other things, R&D,
including in the context of AI/ML research [66], any entity
mining and utilizing such data still needs to be mindful
of privacy considerations. Whether the subject concerns
images of people from high-resolution EO data or individual
(image) data mined from social media platforms,
the privacy of the people concerned (and of their data)
needs to be secured. In addition to being a legal requirement
under the GDPR, privacy is a human right and must
also be secured as a matter of ethics, even in the absence
of legal regulations in most jurisdictions. Arguably, therefore,
the ethical standard of privacy may be higher than
the legal standard. For example, the argument that data
are already public (e.g., since they were posted on Twitter)
may be adequate to avoid trouble with law enforcement,
but it may not help overcome ethical concerns over privacy
[67], [68].
Beyond the GDPR, ethics requires that when data are
collected without the consent of people whose lives are
closely affected and associated with the data, the analysis
and dissemination of such data must not adversely impact
the fundamental human rights and welfare of such people.
This is centrally relevant, as EO data as well as AI4EO data
are being used to make policy recommendations linked to
the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). EO scientists may see this issue come into play
when their research helps identify slum regions and illegal
mining sites; the research may lead to policy decisions
whereby large numbers of people living in identified slums
or deriving their livelihood from small-scale artisanal mining
lose their homes and means of livelihood. A responsible
restructuring of research questions and research designs may
be necessary to avoid such dilemmas. Similarly, in the context
of agriculture, the EU code of conduct for agricultural
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2022
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - December 2022

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