policy

December 12, 2013

Sixth Conference on European Union Space Policy

The 6th Conference on European Union Space Policy will take place at the European Commission’s Charlemagne Building, in Brussels, Belgium on January 28 and 29, 2014.

Registration is now open. Online registration closes January 22, 2014.

The theme is "What Direction for Europe in Space Between Now and 2020?." The conference is sponsored by the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.

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By Inside GNSS
July 17, 2013

Phones, Drones and Privacy

Every breath you take . . .
Every move you make
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you

I originally planned on titling this column, “Waiting to Inhale,” recalling these lyrics and an editorial I wrote more than four years ago about my sense of relief at the departure of the second Bush administration.

I called that one, “Waiting to Exhale.”

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By Inside GNSS
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May 31, 2013

State Associations Tackle Privacy UAV Issues

Three state government associations are teaming up with privacy advocates and drone proponents to craft legislation potentially critical to opening the country to the unmanned aircraft industry.

The effort, which is being spearheaded by the Aerospace States Association (ASA), could be instrumental in heading off a potentially devastating backlash against unmanned aerial systems (UAS) fueled by privacy concerns. GNSS technology is a leading candidate for UAS guidance, navigation, and control systems for many types of unmanned aircraft.

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By Inside GNSS
May 13, 2013

White House Moves to Harden Infrastructure against GPS Disruption

System engineers across the country may soon be planning, in some cases perhaps for the first time, what they would do if they could not use the GPS service.

The effort is part of an expanded White House initiative to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Alhough infrastructure protection programs have been under way for some time, they did not necessarily address GPS vulnerabilities explicitly.

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By Inside GNSS
March 20, 2013

Congress, States Proposes Bills on Location Privacy, UAVs

Congress is moving to limit the sharing of geolocation information.

The Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act (HR 983), introduced on March 6, addresses a privacy loophole created by services like Gmail and social networking sites. Though law enforcement must get a warrant to access an archive of e-mail stored on your computer, the same protections do not exist for information voluntarily given to a third party.

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By Dee Ann Divis
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March 18, 2013

It’s Complicated

It’s spring and privacy proposals are popping up in abundance, threatening to complicate the lives of law enforcement officers, spoil the landscape for some location-based businesses, and choke off the U.S. market for commercial unmanned aerial systems (UAS) before it gets off the ground.

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By Dee Ann Divis
March 1, 2013

The Sequester and Its GPS Discontents

Deep military spending cuts set to kick in March 1 will likely slow efforts to modernize the GPS constellation, insiders agree, in large part because many of the personnel needed to push the program forward will be sitting at home, unpaid, one day out of every five.

The human impact of the deep cuts taking effect when sequestration kicks in on Friday was already evident in mid-February during the program review conference held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

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By Inside GNSS
February 28, 2013

GAO Report on Receiver Performance Invokes GPS LightSquared Controversy

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on receiver performance and increased availability to radio frequency spectrum reveals just how complicated the issue underlying the GPS/LightSquared controversy is.

On February 22, the GAO sent the report — entitled “Spectrum Management – Further Consideration of Options to Improve Receiver Performance Needed” — to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

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By Inside GNSS
February 20, 2013

EU Council Sets 2014-2020 Budget; Galileo Request Reduced

Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president. Photo: Council of the European Union

For the first time ever, European Union (EU) leaders have agreed to a real-terms cut in spending, after all-night marathon talks in Brussels that left some delegates angry, some disappointed, and a lot of others simply relieved that they could get out of town.

The €960 billion multi-annual financial framework or MFF, which covers the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020, would be about three per cent less than the current long-term budget, and a sharp cut from the €1.03 trillion proposed by the European Commission (EC) at the outset of negotiations.

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By Inside GNSS
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