In theory, digitally wired "smart cities" using technology to control a host of services, such as mass transit, utilities and healthcare, will create a "super-efficient infrastructure, aid urban planning and improve the well-being of the populace."
But in reality,
according to a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece penned by Mike Weston, CEO of data-science consultancy Profusion, the smart city concept raises a litany of legal and ethical issues.
Municipalities and governments around the world are "pledging billions" to create smart cities blanketed with technology "ranging from the genuinely useful to the potentially terrifying," according to Weston, who worries that the massive amount of personal data collected on individuals and their behaviors — where they work and shop and how they commute, for example — will be centralized and easier to access.
"Given the value of this data, it’s conceivable that municipalities or private businesses that pay to create a smart city will seek to recoup their expenses by selling it," he said.
"A byproduct of a tech utopia," Weston says, will be questions about whether individuals’ data should be available for purchase by employers or insurance companies, and if people own their personal data after it becomes part of the smart-city domain.
Weston’s company conducted an experiment that involved staffers wearing devices that monitored more than 170 metrics of their daily lives for 10 days, including travel, sleep and emotion.
A company will be able to predict individuals’ daily routines as well as preferences, behavior and emotional state, information that Weston characterizes as "a marketer’s dream come true."
But until rules and regulations are put in place, businesses operating in smart cities will have to walk a fine line.
"A large-scale misuse of personal data could provoke a consumer backlash that could cripple a company’s reputation and lead to monster lawsuits," according to Weston, while businesses won’t know which individuals might welcome the convenience of targeted advertising and which will find it creepy."
The "Orwellian" concept of the smart city doesn’t have to become reality if it is implemented responsibly, Weston says.
"There is no reason why what sounds intrusive in the abstract can’t revolutionize the way people live for the better by offering services that anticipates their needs; by designing ultraefficient infrastructure that makes commuting a (relative) dream; or with a revolutionary approach to how energy is generated and used by businesses and the populace at large."
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