Report from the 2nd Specialist Workshop on Geoprivacy for Personalized Health

The 2nd Specialist Workshop on Geoprivacy for Personalized Health, held from February 27-28, 2025, at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, built upon and expanded the discussions exchanged during the 1st workshop. As multi-modal sensor-based technologies (e.g., GPS/IMU, biosensors) and data science methodologies continue their rapid advancement (Kim et al., 2023), geoprivacy has emerged as a critical area requiring focused attention, particularly within the domain of personalized health.
Personalized health research—combined with geographic and locational information—holds transformative potential across healthcare and health research. By integrating geographic and locational data with individual health profiles, researchers and various stakeholders can identify environmental disease determinants, develop location-specific interventions, and monitor population health with unprecedented precision. However, these substantial benefits come with significant privacy risks extending beyond individuals to communities and neighborhoods, when misused or inadequately protected.
This workshop addressed these evolving challenges by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of international experts from fields including geospatial data science, health informatics, urban planning, computational sciences, ethics, and legal frameworks. The 2nd Geoprivacy Workshop significantly advanced the conversation around geoprivacy, establishing a foundation for future workshops and collaborative efforts. It created a shared understanding of current challenges, outlined innovative approaches to addressing those challenges, and underscored the importance of sustained interdisciplinary collaboration in navigating the delicate balance between maximizing data utility and ensuring robust privacy protection.