IGIR lunch seminar by Sarah de Heer on “Governmental Access to Privately-Obtained Remote Sensing Data”

Commercial entities are increasingly engaged in activities in outer space. The same is true for the collection of remote sensing data; this type of data is more and more collected by satellites, which are owned by private entities. This development raises various legal questions, amongst which how to proceed whenever such a privately-owned satellite has collected remote sensing data, which is potentially of interest to governmental authorities in the context of public safety, so-called ‘safety-critical data’.

During the presentation, we will discuss whether governmental entities have the right to access this type of data, and if so, under which circumstances. My research, therefore, focusses on whether the current international and European legal frameworks provide governmental entities access to safety-critical data, which is controlled by private entities.

This study demonstrates the insufficiency of the current legal regime, on both the international and European level, to deal with access to such safety-critical data. In order to overcome this legal gap, this research, thus, calls for a discussion on what a new legal framework should entail.

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