Volunteered Geographic Information

Whether you can safely rely on VGI depends on how you plan to use the information. Overall, you should keep in mind that many of the volunteer contributors involved in creating a VGI map have no specialized expertise or training. Mistakes and inaccuracies are likely.

VGI is also a new phenomenon. Some of the supporting website services, data analytics software, and data verification technologies are therefore in their infancy. Data collection processes also vary from website to website. Some VGI services moderate and verify the submissions of volunteers, while others immediately put all information onto the live website. Again, errors and inaccuracies are to be expected.

You need to use your best judgement to assess any VGI-based website on a case-by-case basis. In general, you should try to only rely on VGI as a supplementary source of information – especially where the accuracy of your information is critical or where it feeds into important decisions.

In many cases, accuracy of the information on a VGI website is important. Although no one is likely to suffer injury from an inaccurate map of bird-watching locations, VGI is increasingly used in disaster-relief scenarios.

Although fully relying upon a VGI map may not be a prudent course of action, the wide public availability of VGI information means that some people will inevitably rely on this information. For example, persons in the vicinity of a forest fire might use the information to decide whether or not to evacuate their homes. The forest fighters combating the fire might use VGI to help identify its location. If the given location of the fire is wrong, the fire fighters could be delayed from responding to an actual fire. If a VGI map fails to identify a forest fire altogether, this could lead fire fighters to not even respond.

Thus, especially where disaster responders use VGI, inaccurate information can certainly lead to wasted resources, damage to property, and even physical injury.

At present, there are no laws in Canada setting out any specific obligations for VGI service providers. However, the general legal obligations that all persons must follow still apply. Foremost, all VGI service providers must ensure that they do not engage in any “negligent” behaviour. Where a VGI service provider is negligent and this leads to injury, those responsible could face legal liability for any harm done, depending on the particular circumstances. Please see When would a VGI website be liable in negligence for inaccurate information?, for further details on the law of negligence in this context.

A court could expect a website to make a reasonable effort to verify the data posted on the site. Ensuring that all information on the site is 100% accurate might not be possible, especially in the time-sensitive context of disaster-relief; however, a court may still expect a website to make a reasonable effort both to moderate the information and warn users of potential gaps in the accuracy of the information provided.

The standard required for moderating submissions and ensuring accuracy will vary depending on the particular risks posed by inaccurate or unverified information on the website. A court will consider these contextual factors under the “standard of care” stage of a negligence analysis, discussed below under When would a VGI website be liable in negligence for inaccurate information?.

The law of negligence for websites publicly providing information is not a well-developed area of the law. The extent of a website's duties are not clearly defined or known. However, under Canadian common law, there are several key criteria that must usually be met in order for an injured person to successfully establish a claim in negligence:

• A duty of care;
• A breach of the appropriate standard of care; and
• A causal link between a negligent act and the injury suffered.

Duty of Care

For a court to find a “duty of care”, there must exist a relationship of proximity between the website providers and the end user. That is, the relationship between the VGI service provider and the website visitor must be of such a nature that it is only reasonable for the service provider to keep the end user in mind and attempt to prevent injury to him or her.

Many factors arise in a court's contemplation of this “duty of care”.  A court might look at whether the website targets a specific class of users, whether it presents itself as a professional and authoritative source of information, whether there is any membership fee, and whether any contractual relationship exists (such as through a “Terms of Use”). The type of injury is also an important factor: courts are much more reticent to recognize a duty of care for economic losses.

A court would also consider matters of public policy. For instance, a court might not want to hinder innovation in the developing field of VGI, nor extend the liability of a website provider to a broad and indeterminate number of users.

Given that there have been no decided cases on VGI negligence in Canada, it is not clear at this point in time which of these factors a court would weigh most strongly. The prudent course for a VGI website is to assume that a court might find a duty of care, and act to an appropriate standard of care, as discussed below. For liability in Quebec, also note that courts do not directly look for a “duty of care”, but rather consider many of these same factors at other stages of the analysis.

Standard of care

The standard of care is the minimum standard of behaviour to which a person must act in order to avoid liability. To determine the standard that a VGI website should follow in providing accurate information, a court will most likely consider what a “reasonable person” would do in the circumstances.

This standard will vary widely depending on the particular circumstances Courts usually demand a higher standard of care in situations that are considered “dangerous”. Thus, a higher standard of care will be expected of a VGI website aimed at helping people make decisions in a disaster relief context, as opposed to a website aggregating restaurant locations.

Courts will also consider standard industry practices; therefore, to meet the requisite standard of care, websites should, at the very least, attempt to follow the common practices of other websites with respect to moderating and verifying user inputs.

Causal Link

To establish negligence, a court must also find that the injury suffered was caused by negligence on the part of the VGI website. The general test here is that the injury would not have occurred “but for” the VGI website's negligence. Additionally, the particular type of injury suffered must not have “too remote” of a connection with the VGI websites actions.

Other Legal Tests

Although these factors always guide a court's analysis in negligence cases, more specific legal tests may apply. Courts have specialized ways of analyzing product defects, negligent performances of services, and negligent misrepresentations of information. It is difficult to identify whether a VGI website is a product, service, or information: therefore, any of these specialized tests could potentially apply.

Due to the high stakes of some VGI information, such as in disaster relief, a VGI website should be very careful in producing and presenting information online. Especially in high-risk contexts, the website providers must take reasonable steps to moderate and verify the accuracy of the information posted. This need not be an overly onerous task: in some cases, volunteer moderators verifying each other's information will be sufficient.

VGI websites should also make sure that their software is running smoothly, and that the visual designs of the sites are clear and informative. The site should also offer ways to let the user judge the fitness of the data themselves.

Of course, clear information is also important. All VGI websites should clearly and prominently warn the users as to potential inaccuracies and dangers associated with relying on the information presented.

VGI depends on the efforts of individual volunteers to create, improve, correct and continually update the map data. If you notice an error in the data, you should attempt to follow the user guides on the website explaining how you can participate and correct the error. You may also wish to contact the site administrator or other community members to ensure that the error is corrected.