Who Owns Surveying Data? The Corporate Battle Over Knowledge

"Surveying data is valuable—so why are we handing it over to tech companies for free?"

Imagine you’re out in the field, putting in the hours—walking boundary lines, verifying control points, cross-checking legal descriptions—doing the precise, meticulous work that keeps the physical world in order. Then, without realizing it, the data you just collected gets absorbed into a private database, repackaged, and sold to someone else for a profit.

That’s not a hypothetical. It’s happening right now.

Surveyors are creating incredibly valuable data—and giving it away for free. Whether it’s through publicly funded projects that get scraped by tech companies or private-sector work that isn’t properly protected, surveying professionals are fueling billion-dollar industries without seeing a dime in return.

If this doesn’t sound like a problem yet, consider this: Once a dataset is taken by a corporation, it’s no longer yours to correct, update, or control. If a property boundary is wrong, if an elevation benchmark is miscalculated, if a floodplain map is inaccurate, it doesn’t matter—because the professionals who actually understand the data no longer have access to it.

Big Tech, AI startups, and private mapping firms are positioning themselves as the new authorities on geospatial data. They’re replacing professional judgment with algorithms, prioritizing mass data collection over accuracy, and monetizing knowledge surveyors spent decades acquiring.

And the worst part? Surveyors are letting it happen.

This isn’t just an economic issue—it’s a professional survival issue. If surveyors don’t take control of their own data, they risk becoming obsolete—not because their work isn’t needed, but because corporations will have taken over their role.

Want to see how this fits into a bigger trend? Read about how Big Tech is trying to control geospatial knowledge.

The Hidden Gold Mine of Surveying Data

The geospatial industry isn’t just growing—it’s exploding. By 2030, it’s projected to surpass $300 billion annually, and much of that revenue will come from selling and reselling geospatial data. The irony? Surveyors—the professionals actually collecting and verifying this data—are rarely the ones profiting.

For decades, surveyors have been the silent backbone of mapping, infrastructure, and land development. Every road, building, and legal boundary exists within an invisible framework of precise geospatial information, most of it originally produced by licensed surveyors. Yet, instead of controlling this valuable intellectual property, the profession has largely allowed tech companies, government agencies, and AI-driven startups to seize it—often without compensation or oversight.

Consider platforms like Google Maps, Apple Maps, and private GIS providers—all of which rely heavily on geospatial data. While they do collect some of their own information, much of their foundational mapping relies on data that originated from surveyors. And when that data becomes outdated or inaccurate, who do they turn to? Not the professionals who collected it in the first place, but algorithms designed to “estimate” accuracy based on machine learning.

The problem gets worse when publicly funded survey data—often created by government contracts using taxpayer dollars—ends up privatized. A surveyor completes a project, submits the data to a municipal database, and assumes it will be used for public good. Instead, that data is quietly absorbed by a private mapping company, enhanced with AI, and resold to other government agencies at a premium price.

It’s a cycle of extraction that benefits corporations at the expense of professionals. Surveyors do the work, but Big Tech reaps the rewards.

And if this trend continues, the profession will face an even bigger threat: Surveyors will no longer be seen as the authorities on land measurement and geospatial accuracy—because corporations will have claimed that role for themselves.

Think that’s an exaggeration? It’s already happening with the privatization of public geospatial data. See why surveyors must advocate to protect their own industry.

Why Surveyors Must Control Their Intellectual Property

Surveyors are the original creators of precise geospatial data, but they’re losing control of it faster than they realize. The moment a dataset leaves a surveyor’s hands—whether it’s submitted to a government agency, uploaded to a public GIS database, or shared with a client—it can be copied, repurposed, and monetized by someone else. And more often than not, that “someone else” is a tech company that understands just how valuable geospatial data really is.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t just about lost revenue. It’s about losing professional authority.

Surveyors have spent centuries defining property boundaries, resolving land disputes, and ensuring public safety through accurate land measurement. But as corporate mapping platforms grow in influence, they’re starting to position themselves as the ultimate arbiters of land data. If you’ve ever had to explain to a client why Google Earth isn’t a legal survey, you already know how dangerous this misconception can be.

The problem goes deeper than that. Once surveying data enters a private corporate system, it’s no longer subject to professional oversight. That means errors can spread, inaccuracies can multiply, and surveyors are left dealing with the consequences—without the power to fix them.

Take, for example, a case from 2022 in which a private mapping startup integrated extensive publicly available survey data into their proprietary platform. They enhanced it using AI, branded it as their own, and then sold access to municipalities that had originally funded the surveys in the first place. The surveyors who created the data? They weren’t compensated. The cities that paid for the data? They were forced to buy it back.

This is the future if surveyors don’t take control of their own intellectual property: an industry where surveying knowledge is repackaged, resold, and controlled by corporations instead of professionals.

Want to see how this trend connects to the push for deregulation? Read about how surveying licensure is under attack.

Why Big Tech Loves Your Data (But Won’t Pay for It)

If surveying data is so valuable, why aren’t corporations lining up to compensate the professionals who collect it? Because they don’t have to.

Big Tech, AI startups, and private mapping firms aren’t interested in paying for geospatial data when they can extract it for free. They’ve built an entire business model around scraping, aggregating, and repurposing data without compensating the original sources.

Take Google Maps, for example. It’s widely used, incredibly powerful, and constantly updated. But where does a significant portion of its base data come from? Public records, government agencies, and large-scale aggregation of other geospatial datasets—including surveys that were originally performed by licensed professionals. And when something is wrong? It’s not surveyors who are called to correct it, but AI-driven estimates and user-generated reports.

The same thing happens with AI-powered mapping platforms. Startups are increasingly using machine learning to "fill in the gaps" in geospatial data, often training their systems on real-world survey data that they didn’t collect themselves. They claim their models can replace traditional surveying—without actually employing surveyors.

This isn’t just happening in the private sector. Governments are starting to adopt AI-enhanced mapping solutions, often without realizing they’re buying back data that surveyors originally helped create. In 2023, a major U.S. city signed a contract with a private geospatial firm to improve its property boundary maps. What they didn’t realize? Most of the base data in the system came from surveys already conducted under publicly funded contracts—now repackaged and resold.

The message is clear: If surveyors don’t protect their data, someone else will take it—and profit from it.

Want to see how this trend connects to the broader battle over surveying's future? Read about why surveyors must fight to protect their professional standards.

Intellectual Property Protection: Why It’s Crucial for Surveyors

Surveying data isn’t just information—it’s intellectual property. Every coordinate, every elevation point, every carefully verified boundary represents time, skill, and expertise. Yet, most surveyors treat their data like a public resource rather than what it truly is: a valuable commodity that should be protected, licensed, and monetized responsibly.

The reality is, if you don’t set the terms for how your data is used, someone else will. And more often than not, that “someone else” is a tech company that has no interest in preserving accuracy, legal accountability, or professional integrity.

To prevent surveying data from being exploited, surveyors need to adopt the same intellectual property protections used in industries like software development, architecture, and engineering. That means:

🔹 Licensing Agreements – Surveyors should never hand over data without clear usage terms. Licensing agreements should specify who owns the data, how it can be used, and whether it can be resold or modified. If a client wants exclusive rights, they should pay for them.

🔹 Fair Use Advocacy – Not all data should be locked away, but surveyors must fight for policies that distinguish between public-interest geospatial data and data that corporations use for profit. Open data initiatives should not serve as a loophole for private companies to extract value without compensation.

🔹 Legal and Political Engagement – Surveyors must push for clear legislation protecting publicly funded geospatial data from unrestricted commercial exploitation. If taxpayer-funded surveys are going to be used in private-sector applications, then surveyors should receive royalties or compensation.

🔹 Standardized Industry Protections – Organizations like NSPS and state surveying boards must take a stronger stance on data ownership. Surveyors should push for industry-wide licensing frameworks to prevent corporate entities from quietly absorbing geospatial data without proper authorization.

If surveyors don’t start treating their data like a protected asset, they will continue losing ownership of their own profession.

Think this is just a surveying problem? It’s not. See how deregulation is making it easier for corporations to undermine surveying standards.

The Risks of Handing Data to Corporations—Unchecked and Unpaid

If you’re still wondering whether it’s really that bad for tech companies to control geospatial data, let’s examine what happens when surveying data is monetized without oversight.

1. Accuracy Becomes Secondary to Profit

Surveyors are bound by legal and ethical standards to ensure their data is as accurate as possible. Tech corporations? Not so much.

Once a dataset is absorbed into a proprietary mapping system, it’s no longer subject to professional verification. If a mistake is made—an incorrect boundary, a misaligned topographic model, a floodplain miscalculation—surveyors won’t be the ones correcting it. AI-driven algorithms and mass data interpolation will.

We’ve already seen this in action. In 2021, a major GIS company relied on an automated mapping system to “fix” inconsistencies in its database—without human oversight. The result? Property lines were altered in multiple counties, leading to disputes that took months to unravel. Surveyors weren’t called in to fix the errors until lawsuits started piling up.

2. The Public Pays for Its Own Data—Twice

Another major issue? Publicly funded surveying data is being privatized.

Governments frequently contract surveyors to collect data for municipal planning, disaster response, and public land management. That data—paid for by taxpayer dollars—should remain accessible to the public and professionals who need it.

Instead, what’s happening is that tech firms are collecting these datasets, enhancing them with AI, and reselling the very same information to government agencies at a premium price.

In 2022, a mid-sized city in the U.S. paid for a comprehensive boundary and infrastructure survey. Less than a year later, they were forced to buy back their own data after it was absorbed into a private mapping platform.

3. Corporate Control Means Data Gatekeeping

When surveyors give up control of their data, they also give up their say in how it’s used.

Companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon already control massive portions of geospatial data. As their influence grows, surveyors will have fewer opportunities to access, correct, or challenge data errors.

This kind of monopoly isn’t just a professional threat—it’s a danger to public trust. If a corporation prioritizes monetization over accuracy, public infrastructure, real estate transactions, and legal disputes will all suffer.

Want to see how surveying professionals can fight back? Read about the importance of defending licensure and professional standards.

Protecting Your Profession: Immediate Action Steps

It’s one thing to recognize the problem—it’s another to do something about it. Surveyors can’t afford to sit back and watch as corporations take control of their industry. The time to reclaim ownership over geospatial data is now.

Here’s how surveyors can fight back:

Step 1: Education & Awareness—Stop Giving It Away for Free

Too many surveyors unknowingly hand over their data without considering the long-term implications. That has to change.

🔹 Know Your Rights – Before submitting any dataset to a government agency,

client, or online platform, understand the licensing agreements. Does your contract specify data ownership? Can it be resold? If not, change the terms.

🔹 Educate Clients – Many landowners, engineers, and municipalities don’t understand the value of geospatial data. They assume it’s just another deliverable. Explain to them that survey data is intellectual property—and should be treated as such.

🔹 Expose the Exploitation – Professional organizations need to raise awareness about how corporations profit from unprotected survey data. The more surveyors understand the issue, the harder it will be for companies to quietly continue the practice.

Step 2: Industry-Wide Standardization—Licensing Agreements & Data Protection

The surveying industry needs to set the rules before corporations do it for them.

🔹 Develop Strong Licensing Terms – Surveyors should never hand over their work without clear agreements on how it can be used. If a company or government agency wants unrestricted rights to the data, they should pay for them.

🔹 Push for Industry Standards – Professional organizations like NSPS should create a universal licensing framework for surveying data. Just like software developers have copyright protections, surveyors should have standard contract terms that prevent their work from being exploited.

🔹 Secure Digital Distribution – Surveyors should invest in secure digital tools that allow them to share data without giving away ownership. Blockchain-based data tracking, watermarking, and limited-access servers can help ensure that data isn’t quietly absorbed into corporate databases.

Step 3: Political Advocacy—Demand Legal Protections for Surveying Data

Big Tech isn’t just taking over geospatial data because surveyors are being careless—it’s also happening because there aren’t enough legal safeguards in place.

🔹 Lobby for Legislation – Governments need to create policies that prevent publicly funded survey data from being privatized. If taxpayer money was used to collect it, corporations shouldn’t be allowed to profit from it unchecked.

🔹 Push for Fair Use Regulations – There’s a difference between open data that serves the public good and data being exploited for private gain. Surveyors should work with lawmakers to ensure that publicly available geospatial information isn’t being repackaged and resold without compensation.

🔹 Get Involved in Policy-Making – Surveyors must be part of the conversation when geospatial legislation is being drafted. Whether it’s at the local, state, or national level, the industry should have a seat at the table.

The surveying profession still holds immense value—but only if surveyors fight to protect it.

Want to take action? Read about how surveyors must organize, educate, and advocate for their profession.

Conclusion: Stop Giving Away the Farm

Surveyors, the message is simple: stop giving your data away for free.

For too long, surveying professionals have unknowingly fueled the rise of tech giants, private GIS firms, and AI-driven mapping platforms without receiving fair compensation or control over their own work. The profession is at a turning point. Either surveyors reclaim ownership of their data and expertise, or they watch as corporations redefine surveying in their own image—without the accuracy, accountability, or professionalism that has defined this field for centuries.

This is about more than money. It’s about professional survival.

If surveyors fail to protect their intellectual property, they risk becoming irrelevant in an industry they helped create. When tech firms, real estate developers, and AI startups hold the keys to geospatial data, surveyors will find themselves reduced to subcontractors, brought in only when something goes wrong—if they’re brought in at all.

So what’s the solution?

🔹 Treat surveying data like the valuable commodity it is. If you collect it, you should control how it’s used.
🔹 Use licensing agreements to define ownership. Clients should not get unlimited rights to resell or redistribute data without surveyors’ consent.
🔹 Advocate for stronger legal protections. Surveyors must demand that publicly funded geospatial data stays public—not sold back by private corporations.
🔹 Educate your peers and clients. Many surveyors and agencies don’t realize how much power they’re handing over until it’s too late.

This isn’t about resisting technology—it’s about ensuring that surveyors remain the gatekeepers of accuracy, ethics, and legal responsibility in geospatial work.

The question now isn’t whether corporations will try to control surveying data—they already are. The real question is whether surveyors will fight back.

Will you continue to let others profit from your knowledge, or will you reclaim what is rightfully yours?

If you’re ready to take action, start by understanding the broader threats to the profession. See how the push for deregulation is undermining surveyors everywhere.