It's Getting Harder To Reside Anonymously In a Modern City (citiesofthefuture.eu)

dkatana writes: In a panel on 'Privacy in the Smart City' during this month's Smart City World Congress, Dr. Carmela Troncoso, a researcher from Spain, argued that data anonymization itself is almost impossible without using advanced cryptography. Our every transaction leaves a digital marker that can be mined by anyone with the right tools or enough determination.

Most modern cities today are full of sensors and connected devices. Some are considering giving away free WiFi in exchange of personal data. LinkNYC, which was present at the congress as exhibitor, is one such example of this. The panelists insisted that it is the duty of world leaders to safeguard their citizens' privacy, just as corporations are answerable to leaks and hacks.

Comments

IMHO that's good

[argStyopa]

Personally, I think the anonymity of people in massive cities is the source of many of the problems of city life.

A lot of urbanites poo-pooh the closed-minded clannishness of small town life, but part of the VALUE of this life (I live in a MN town of 1500) is that people know each other. They know each others' families, they know their histories.

If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole. Cities? You'll likely never see that person again, so who gives a shit?

Re:IMHO that's good

[dablow]

Anonymity is what enabled the modern world.

It was because the anonymity cities provided people where able to question religious dogma, dared to question the authority of king and queens etc.....

Yes, having anonymity also leads to people being douche bags to each other, that is the price to pay for a technological civilization.

BTW last I checked, small towns also had a lot of the same issues as big cities. Murder, drug use, spousal abuse, etc happen there too. And although I have not looked into the numbers, probably in the same proportions as major cities. So like if there is 3 murders per 100,000 in a mjor urban area, that means if you divide up the population into 66 towns of 1500 people, only 3 of them will experience a murder. Which leads to the perception that it "never happens".

Re:IMHO that's good

[JackieBrown]

Small towns are full of bigots, pedophiles, racists and thieves and everyone is too afraid

Ahh. Just like large cities, then? Except in a small town, you can learn who to avoid.

Re:IMHO that's good

[Anonymous Coward]

"Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know."

- Some Asshole

Re:IMHO that's good

[Noble713]

If you're an asshole, people know it and will remember it. So you make SURE you don't act like an asshole.

Things that nosy small town people consider assholish:
1. Inter-racial relationships. "Ohhh, didn't you know your daughter is dating a gaijin? And a black man at that? You must be so ashamed."
2. Material wealth. "Mr. X is driving a Lexus now. He must think he's better than us. What did he do to get that money anyway, living and working out here? Probably something illegal."
3. Niche music/TV/fashion tastes. "Did you hear that noise Mr. X was playing? He called it 'death metal'. That's the path to the Devil. Keep your kids away from him."

I've lived in small towns and large, both in the US and in Japan. The problem with small towns is they are almost always subject to groupthink of the lowest common denominator. If you are a vanilla human being, sitting close to the 50% percentile of every possible normal distribution, it probably sounds like heaven....But if you are a statistical outlier, a minority in any way (ethnicity/religion/hobbies/sexual preference/whatever), you are at the mercy of the idiots around you. At least in cities you have access to a large enough variety of people that you can form social connections with like-minded individuals. And since they are exposed to different people, the population in general is more willing to mind their own business "Hey, if that's your thing, do what works for you."

Re:IMHO that's good

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know whether Jackie is a bigot, but you sure are. You have prejudged all small towns as full of "bigots, pedophiles, racists, and thieves" with "southern values", the latter of which is a double-whammy of bigotry.

I don't even understand where you got pedophiles and thieves from. Thieves are much more likely to be found in cities even on a per capita basis. I've never heard of pedophiles having any difference in distribution between the two, but you can be sure that if somebody is a known-pedophile, nobody lets their kids play near that person, *even if* they close ranks against them actually being prosecuted (seriously though, pedophiles are generally not considered cool in any scale of settlement).

Being in a small town where everybody discriminates against you uniformly would be bad. On the flip side, a small town where discrimination against you is not tolerated is good. The networks of people circumventing each other goes both ways.

I can at least understand where you get bigots and racists -- with fewer people, comes less exposure to different races, ideologies, sexualities, etc., and it's well known that exposure to these things tends to make you more tolerant of them. I'll throw you a bone and also argue that in a small enough town, you might not be able to reach a critical mass of people who share your particular ideology / special interest / cultural background / whatever to be able to relate with your shared experience. The flip side of that is in a large enough city, you can actually find a large group of people who share your particular niche ideology / special interest / whatever to such a great degree that you don't have to expose yourself to anybody that differs from you, but you could never reach such a critical mass in a smaller settlement. You find some of the most oddball groups in cities, and oftentimes that's harmless but it can be just as bad.

Re:IMHO that's good

[Shadow IT Ninja]

But the smart city isn't addressing this issue at all. You are still anonymous to other ordinary citizens. It's corporations and government agencies you are no longer anonymous to.