
'Surveillance capitalism' critic urges Toronto to abandon smart city project - aaronbrethorst
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/06/toronto-smart-city-google-project-privacy-concerns
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jammygit
Concerned readers could consider donating to the Canadian civil liberties
association, who has also taken up the cause

[https://ccla.org/open-letter-ccla-calling-reset-
waterfront-t...](https://ccla.org/open-letter-ccla-calling-reset-waterfront-
toronto/)

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54thr
'Later that month, Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario,
also resigned. “I imagined us creating a Smart City of Privacy, as opposed to
a Smart City of Surveillance,” she wrote in her resignation letter'.

"Smart City of Privacy"? How quaint. That's from the "privacy commissioner",
the resident "privacy professional". Well, she didn't quite like how the
project was shaping up, so rather than attempting to steer it properly, she
simply abandoned her post and washed her hands of any responsibility, so they
can go ahead and employ someone else who greenlights every insidious decision
that will be implemented. These people serve the public by quitting their jobs
when they don't like what's happening.

The cities we have are already retrofitted to be "smart". Have you looked
around lately when you go outside? There are innumerable devices in plain
sight littering the landscape, watching you and tracking your phone - your
location, your associations, your contacts, your interests, your movements -
recorded, catalogued, processed, stored and retrievable indefinitely to serve
the whim of the controllers.

