Efforts to protect consumers' privacy on the internet are likely to heavily impact companies that collect, use or distribute geo-location data, according to the Management Association for Professional Photogrammetric Surveyors.

A number of initiatives in Washington, including a privacy protection bill, the "Best Practices Act of 2010," are looking to protect data about users, particularly geo-location data.

GPS location-aware smart phones and other devices already collect enormous amounts of data about where people go, who they are and what they do.

The Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors  issued a letter recently to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging "the FCC to use extreme caution and not implement any enforcement or broad regulation that would have a harmful affect on the broad private geospatial community."

The body is concerned that privacy legislation, or FCC regulation, that imprecisely uses and regulates the term “precise geo-location information” would adversely impact consumers, geospatial firms, and government programs.

They were particularly concerned that this term was not defined in the draft and introduced legislation.

As the geospatial community is one of the fastest-growing market segments, MAPPS is concerned about the unintended consequences of future FCC regulation that will stymie economic growth, job creation, and introduction of new consumer products enabled by geospatial technologies.

The FCC is investigating Google's activities, including photographing neighbourhoods for its Street View mapping feature.