Sidewalk Labs’ Smart City at Toronto’s Waterfront
Privacy
When I think about the situation that happened with Sidewalk Labs’ Smart City at Toronto’s Waterfront, I can’t help but think of the word (and I am sure I’m not the only one) “Orwellian". It is as if George Orwell was predicting or forecasting our future in his book 1984, where the protagonist lives in a surveillance city under the power of a company named Big Brother (yes, it is not a coincidence the shared name with the famous reality show). This book is described by literature experts as a “dystopian social science fiction,” but the real question is: For how long is the term science fiction going to last, and when will it transform into something very real for Canadians?
Privacy is a right, as Ann Cavoukian more accurately explains in her 2020 interview with CBC: “Privacy is a foundation of our freedom”. But if we analyze the history of our world, as well as the philosophies and doctrines that have been adopted in modern history, such as Neoliberalism, (which rules the western world), we would realize the sense of privacy has become a very blurred concept nowadays. Since we have been trained to be desensitized from it, especially during the last decades. During the 90s we experience the boom of reality shows, where a camera films everything people do in their lives in a certain period and/or in a confined space. Showing how people interact with each other by sharing their intimate life and inviting us into their private life. Throughout the 2000s social media arrived into our lives to redefine privacy as we knew it, people now obtained a medium to not only share their thoughts but their private life with the rest of the world. Now, all our data is collected from our activity online, so, where do we draw the line? I am all for collecting data and personalized experiences but consent is the magic word, without it, we would live in a very different society.
Back to the case of Sidewalk Labs’ in Toronto’s Waterfront, Sidewalk Lab was infringing on almost all of the principles of the Privacy by Design Framework created by privacy expert Ann Cavoukian, I will focus on the most relevant ones in my opinion:
Privacy as a default setting: Privacy was not part of the default settings for the Waterfront project. Ann Cavoukian proposes that privacy should be part of every system’s or company’s default setting, which is collecting data from individuals, who have the right to keep their information and identity confidential.
Respect for user Privacy: This overlaps with the previous point, highlighting the importance of how privacy has to be paramount and corporations need to develop their privacy setting as user-centric. But Sidewalk lab was planning to strip the users from that right by collecting all their data without consent.
Full Functionality - a positive sum not zero-sum: The most important point, in my opinion, establishes how it is possible to have security and privacy at the same time, and how they are not opposite ends of the spectrum. Corporations need to work to have both in their privacy setting defaults respecting users’ privacy. Sidewalk Labs project was working to build a surveillance city, rather than a smart city; which a lot of Torontonians found I problem with.
Ann Cavoukian tried to have a dialogue with Sidewalk Labs and get to an agreement to find a solution that would benefit the corporation and also protect the privacy and integrity of Canadian citizens. Cavoukian by representing at least 92% of Canadians who are concerned about their privacy and how it is protected, pushed Sidewalk Labs to create an “urban data trust,” which participants would’ve been: the Provincial as well as the Federal Government, Waterfront Toronto, Sidewalk labs, and finally all the companies involved in the project. The downside of this situation is that Sidewalk labs washed its hands by saying that it could not oblige the companies to de-identify data from the source, something Cavoukian had fought for since the beginning of the project. The next day after this conversation, Cavoukian resigned in protest of this, something that is to admire, she decided to be out of this revolutionary and innovative project because she believed that they were going against not only her life work but her rights, as well as Canadian citizens’ rights. This became a very controversial topic involving politicians and businessmen who were against it, such as Capitalist Roger McNamee who called it "a dystopian vision that has no place in a democratic society”(Cecco2020), or Toronto’s Mayor Tory who claimed that the project needed to respect Canadians’ rights and if it didn’t work this would open opportunities for others who want to create similar projects, respecting and following Canadian privacy laws.
The project wanted businesses and schools that were part of the Quayside to be part of the project, one of those being George Brown College (GBC). They wanted GBC to work side by side with them to create more digital literacy for GBC students as well as participate in public workshops and more to improve Toronto’s new technological ecosystem, or at least this is what was said in paper. I do not doubt in my mind that this would’ve been a great opportunity for the college, but my question is, what would Sidewalk labs gain from creating alliances with the “neighbours?” For me is very simple, I think this was to keep peace and not create more resistance or opposition than the one they were already having, plus this is good publicity, something every project needs to have to be well accepted.
On May 2020 in the middle of the pandemic Sidewalk labs announced that they were walking away from the project due to the pandemic and how the economy of the world was affecting the project and their company. In my opinion, they abandoned the project because, after years of negotiations, they hit a brick wall, they realized there are still a lot of people who are willing to fight for Canadians’ rights, and is not only about innovation and progress for the sake of progress, but it is about finding a balance where you can get innovative technology and live in a progressive world without giving away the privacy and dignity of its citizens.
In conclusion, I couldn’t agree more with Ann Cavoukian when she asks the rhetorical question “Do we want a city of surveillance or privacy?” Something we all need to ask ourselves. Progress can be achieved, but sometimes we need to take a step back and realize that even if it takes longer to get to the same point, is better to do it the right way. In this case, the right thing to do is to respect privacy and consent. I firmly believe that the right way will always be to respect each other’s rights, as Nelson Mandela said: “To deny people their rights, is to challenge their very humanity”.
References
Cecco, L. (2020, May 7). Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs abruptly abandons Toronto's smart city project. The Guardian. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/07/google-sidewalk-labs-toronto-smart-city-abandoned
Smith, B. (2019, November 28). Sidewalk Labs signs a letter of intent to collaborate with George Brown College. IT World Canada. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/sidewalk-labs-signs-letter-of-intent-to-collaborate-with-george-brown-college/424542
Coop, A. (2019, October 31). A new deal with Sidewalk Labs a huge win, says Waterfront Toronto’s privacy consultant. IT World Canada. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/new-deal-with-sidewalk-labs-a-huge-win-says-waterfront-torontos-privacy-consultant/423519
CBC. (2020, November 17). I resigned in protest from Sidewalk Labs' 'smart city' project over privacy concerns [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t12UqYl5SA
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