Surveillance issues in smart cities

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Smart cities seek to implement information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the efficiency and sustainability of urban spaces while reducing costs and resource consumption.[1] In the context of surveillance, smart cities monitor citizens through strategically placed sensors around the urban landscape, which collect data regarding many different factors of urban living. From these sensors, data is transmitted, aggregated, and analyzed by governments and other local authorities to extrapolate information about the challenges the city faces in sectors such as crime prevention,[2][3][4] traffic management,[5][6] energy use[6][7] and waste reduction. This serves to facilitate better urban planning[8] and allows governments to tailor their services to the local population.[9][10]

Such technology has been implemented in a number of cities, including Santa Cruz, Detroit,[11] Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Smart city technology has developed practical applications in improving effective law enforcement, the optimization of transportation services,[12] and the improvement of essential infrastructure systems,[12] including providing local government services through e-Governance platforms.[13]

This constant and omnipresent transmission of data[8] from disparate sources into a single government entity has led to concerns being raised of these systems turning into ‘electronic panopticons’,[1] where governments exploit data-driven technologies to maximize effective surveillance of their citizens. Such criticism is drawn from privacy factors,[12] as the information sharing flows operate vertically between citizens and the government on a scale that undermines the concept of urban anonymity.[12]

  1. ^ a b "Clever cities: The multiplexed metropolis". The Economist. 2013-09-07. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  2. ^ Baxter, Stephen (2012-02-26). "Modest gains in first six months of Santa Cruz's predictive police program". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
  3. ^ "Predictive policing: Don't even think about it". The Economist. 2013-07-20. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  4. ^ Berg, Nate (2014-06-25). "Predicting crime, LAPD-style". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Amsterdam2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Amsterdam Smart City. "Amsterdam Smart City ~ Projects". Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  7. ^ Yigitcanlar, Tan (2015-01-02). "Smart cities: an effective urban development and management model?". Australian Planner. 52 (1): 27–34. doi:10.1080/07293682.2015.1019752. ISSN 0729-3682. S2CID 109970184.
  8. ^ a b Hardy, Quentin (2014-04-19). "How Urban Anonymity Disappears When All Data Is Tracked". Bits Blog. The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  9. ^ Southampton City Council. "SmartCities card". Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  10. ^ BCN Smart City. "New bus network". Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  11. ^ "Smart City crime prevention: How the City of Detroit reduced violent crime by up to 50%". Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  12. ^ a b c d Finch, Kelsey; Tene, Omer (2014). "WELCOME TO THE METROPTICON: PROTECTING PRIVACY IN A HYPERCONNECTED TOWN". Fordham Urban Law Journal. 41: 1581.
  13. ^ Paskaleva, Krassimira (2013-08-22). "E-Governance as an enabler of the smart city". In Deakin, Mark (ed.). Smart Cities: Governing, Modelling and Analysing the Transition. Taylor and Francis. p. 77. ISBN 978-1135124144.