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Google's Smart City Dream Is Turning Into a Privacy Nightmare (engadget.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Engadget: Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet division focused on smart cities, is caught in a battle over information privacy. The team has lost its lead expert and consultant, Ann Cavoukian, over a proposed data trust that would approve and manage the collection of information inside Quayside, a conceptual smart neighborhood in Toronto. Cavoukian, the former information and privacy commissioner for Ontario, disagrees with the current plan because it would give the trust power to approve data collection that isn't anonymized or "de-identified" at the source. "I had a really hard time with that," she told Engadget. "I just couldn't... I couldn't live with that."
Cavoukian isn't the first privacy expert to abandon the Quayside project. Saadia Muzaffar, founder of TechGirls Canada, left the Digital Strategy Advisory Panel earlier this month. In a resignation letter, she said Waterfront Toronto had shown "apathy and [an] utter lack of leadership regarding shaky public trust and social license." The advisory panel was attended "in good faith," she said, but showed "a blatant disregard for resident concerns about data." These disagreements will add to the concerns of Torontonians. Sidewalk Labs still has time to address these issues and create a master plan that will be accepted by everyone. If the company continues to lose public trust, though, there's a good chance residents and government officials will make up their minds and reject the plan before reading the first page.
Cavoukian isn't the first privacy expert to abandon the Quayside project. Saadia Muzaffar, founder of TechGirls Canada, left the Digital Strategy Advisory Panel earlier this month. In a resignation letter, she said Waterfront Toronto had shown "apathy and [an] utter lack of leadership regarding shaky public trust and social license." The advisory panel was attended "in good faith," she said, but showed "a blatant disregard for resident concerns about data." These disagreements will add to the concerns of Torontonians. Sidewalk Labs still has time to address these issues and create a master plan that will be accepted by everyone. If the company continues to lose public trust, though, there's a good chance residents and government officials will make up their minds and reject the plan before reading the first page.
There is nothing a "privacy policy" can do to stop data from being collected.
is always going to let the needs of the paying ad brands be the only consideration.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The only real chance for privacy is if the systems are self-contained on the property and data isn't exfiltrated to offsite servers. Even then, there are security risks if the system has bugs that make it vulnerable.
Given that Google's business is user data, there's no practical way to have privacy in a Google-driven home.
I expect similar problems for Google self-driving cars unless laws mandate that voice tech and general listening has to be handled in-car, and even then there are issues.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
If the company continues to lose public trust, though, there's a good chance residents and government officials will make up their minds and reject the plan before reading the first page.
I'm not sure where the author gets this conclusion, re: "good chance...governments officials will... reject the plan..." Governments and politicians will side with corporations over residents when they smell the money and hear the big promises of more money. Privacy is not something most governments care about.
passetspike!
I find it hilarious the government is adding their comments when they don't get a single care in the world to data security. I can count ZERO government agencies whom use encrypted mail, support digital encrypted signatures, support shadow identifies and etc.... If the government wants to talk about privacy, they should lead by example.
Look, simply because a company collects data without regard for its safety or privacy of its subjects doesn't mean its ok. And just because it's happened the past or continues to doesn't make it acceptable. Google has the technology and the means to collect data in a responsible way and demonstrate that they are good stewards of it. But they don't seem to be doing this. Instead we have people coming out of the woodwork to apologize for their behavior. No, it's not OK. Google has to do better and demonstrate that they can be in the role they are in without fucking it up. Seriously Google, try a little harder.
"... turning Into a Privacy Nightmare..."
Really now? When was it anything else?
Congratulations, Google...
You've successfully "Don't Be Evil"-ed enough so that no one in their right mind would possibly agree to live there unless they wanted to become an Alphabet serf.
Disney at its most malicious would be 1000x more trustworthy than Alphabet in this regard, and I'd sooner live the rest of my days in the RCID than step foot in Googleville.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Torontonian here. The founding principles of the US were "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Still works that way, especially if you're a wealthy white male. This country's basis was "peace, order, and good government". Individual rights are NOT paramount. There's a CCLU, but it has a much lower profile than the ACLU. Historically, we trust our government a lot more than the Americans do. Although this may be gradually changing as Conservative ideology drives out Liberal ideology by promoting fear that we'll become a godless police state.
Putting this in Toronto was pretty stupid frankly. And I say this as a Canadian. It will never work well there. Not by a long shot. Vancouver or Calgary would have been much better, and I don't even like those cities either.
If Google had cared about that to begin with, they would never have proposed this autistic idiocy. Fuck Google, hard and slow.
There is another address: 1001 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4 in Toronto which is really good candidate to become Google's smart city. Its citizens would not mind to be exposed to new technologies.
Force the residents to suck your dick and get a 90 million dollar payday!
It's Google. How was it ever not going to be a privacy nightmare?
The Smart City is just another illustration of that. Why is anyone surprised?
Capitalism without conscience is coming apart at the seams.
That's totally serial
It's simple, don't trust any company because they all want to commit forced data theft. Everyone needs to be educated that this happens, way too many people DONT know this happens.