Sidewalk Labs wants to develop street signs that let people know what data is being collected from them

One of the big concerns with Sidewalk Labs’ “smart city” is the concern over the citizens’ privacy being invaded by the sensors and cameras that will be used for data collection. That and people wouldn’t exactly know how the data is being collected and for what purposes. It’s caused enough concern that a lawsuit against Sidewalk Labs has been brought to court.

One solution that this Alphabet firm has is the development of street signs that show the people what’s being collected. They hope this move makes the surveillance and monitoring effort more transparent. These would show up as hexagon-shaped signs (similar to other road signs) but it will highlight what type of data is being collected in an area and how that information is going to be used.

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Canadian group sues government over Google-backed smart neighbourhood in Toronto

Sidewalk Labs—a company owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet—has plans to build a smart neighbourhood in Toronto that would collect data from different sources in the area. And it seems a local association is not happy with this development. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is suing three levels of government over this proposed plan. The association claims the project is “invalid and needs to be reset.” They are concerned about the increase in surveillance it entails and how the government seems to be outsourcing its responsibilities to a private corporation. The Sidewalk Labs project is run alongside the publicly funded Waterfront Toronto.

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