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The Globe and Mail has an editorial about the many disadvantages of the upcoming Sidewalk Toronto surveillance project. If one sets aside the repeated conflation of copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets under a single, misleading moniker, the editorial covers how much control over public resources and public spaces is being relinquished to private companies without transparency or accountability, especially in regards to surveillance data collected.
With politicians rushing to show Canada's innovation chops, "smart cities" have emerged as their new frontier. Most consequential of these is a high-profile agreement between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet. A year ago, Canadians were treated to an announcement involving the leaders of all three levels of government gushing and fawning about an enlightened urban partnership with a foreign company whose business model is built exclusively on the principle of mass surveillance.
The most insightful comments during the public announcement came when Eric Schmidt, Google's former executive chair, said they had realized their long-running dream for "someone to give us a city and put us in charge." He also thanked Canadian taxpayers for paying, creating and transferring the core artificial-intelligence technology he credits for Alphabet's success, making it the world's third most valuable corporation. The Google parent's past and future growth are based on the intellectual property (IP) they own and the data they control.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Sunday October 07 2018, @09:03PM (8 children)
Most people don't think about or care about the dystopian scenario you are alluding to. And you can't guarantee a "bad end" from these developments in the future.
Most of the objections in the article are about Google having control over the data, not about the surveillance implications. That's an easy fix. Other cities could just contract with other companies that would install the same sensor networks as Sidewalk Labs, but keep the data on local servers controlled by the city.
We could imagine a future North American city containing a wide variety of "smart" surveillance technologies. ShotSpotter [wikipedia.org] to detect the location of gunfire in real time. A network of ubiquitous cameras that can perform facial recognition and license plate reading in real time, detecting wanted individuals, stolen cars, and disguised/damaged plates and immediately alerting the authorities. You could add in drones stationed around the city that can be quickly deployed to get an aerial view. And the cameras and/or drones will have infrared capability [popsci.com].
Most people aren't breaking into homes, doing illegal drugs, getting into fights, etc. Most people don't have an autistic son that they are afraid will be gunned down by the police. Most legal drivers probably have committed some kind of ticketable offense that could be considered a crime... but that number will go down as the switch to driverless cars is made (another important part of the modern surveillance state).
The danger is theoretical until it is not. As long as the modern surveillance state can keep MOST people reasonably mollified without becoming outright draconian, people will ignore it. The real problem ends up being the economy rather than the surveillance state. If the middle class is wiped out by automation with no effective safety net, you'll get disgruntled people with too much spare time on their hands. Then you'll get a true test of Sidewalk Moronto.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @09:36PM (2 children)
Quick, send them to Mars.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 07 2018, @09:42PM (1 child)
Even with the Musky railroad to Mars, it would be a lot cheaper to send those people to war. Maybe in sub-Saharan Africa instead of the Middle East for a change in pace.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07 2018, @09:46PM
Look who comes out as a pessimist at the end of this weekend.
Welcome down to reality.
(grin)
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday October 07 2018, @10:30PM (2 children)
Dear Kind Sir,
I have endeavored to fix that on your behalf.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 07 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
Core group [mnemonicdictionary.com] implies a small number of people. I think you'll find it to be the majority insted.
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(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday October 08 2018, @12:29AM
In my defense, that core group is pretty big.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @03:40AM (1 child)
seems like you don't realize that wiping of the "middle class" [sic] and the fascism of the surveillance state are two of the faces of the same social phenomenon, look into history to clear this confusion
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @01:41PM
Beat me to it. The rolling out of these mass surveillance solutions is a long-term strategy on the part of the capitalist elites. They know that the proles will get restless when they're starving, and they think that maybe they'll be able to keep the masses under control and enslaved with the magic of technology. In the information age, slave shackles will be made of information. There is no need for iron shackles, because massa knows where you are and what you're thinking every minute of every day.
And of course then there are the useful idiots who approve such things after receiving a keen sounding futurist gee-wiz "world of tomorrow, today!" sales pitch from the elites DBA the Five Eyes DBA Alphabet DBA Google.