Sidewalk Labs sidesteps data privacy concerns
TORONTO • The Google-affiliated Sidewalk Toronto initiative presented sweeping plans for a section of the city’s waterfront Tuesday, but the contentious “smart city” project appears to be putting off tough questions about data privacy.
The presentation included plans for radically redesigned streets, buildings wearing “raincoats” and a concept to turn the ground floors of all buildings in the district into one sprawling “stoa” public space — borrowing the concept from ancient Greek covered walkways bustling with markets.
There was, however, a conspicuous lack of talk about data, privacy, surveillance and governance.
The plans were to be unveiled at a public consultation meeting Tuesday night at its Toronto headquarters, in the heart of the 12-acre Quayside district they hope to one day develop, but media were given a preview earlier in the day.
Despite the perception this project would use sensors and data collection to inform technological systems to make the neighbourhood run more smoothly, at Tuesday’s media briefing the emphasis was heavily skewed to technologies that require no data collection at all.
For example, Sidewalk Toronto thinks “modular pavement” — hexagonal chunks of pavement with embedded lights that can be moved around to allow for more flexibility — can create more pedestrian-friendly streetscapes.
The only real mention of sensors collecting data in the media briefing was from Karim Khalifa, director of buildings innovation with Sidewalk Labs. Khalifa said they’re thinking about “radical mixed use” for the district, which could include residential, commercial and even light industrial tenants occupying the proposed tall wood buildings — even sideby-side on the same floor.
Khalifa suggested the buildings could be outfitted with sensors to keep tabs on tenants to make sure commercial or industrial occupants aren’t creating too much noise or odours to bother the neighbouring residents.
“If we have retailers next to residents next to maybe a light industry, so we think about sensor technologies” Khalifa said. “So if people aren’t creating nuisance for each other, we should be able to live with that — they don’t emit odours, they don’t emit sound.”
New York based Sidewalk Labs is owned by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google. It has formed a partnership to develop Quayside with Waterfront Toronto, the non-profit corporation set up by municipal, provincial and federal governments to revitalize Toronto’s waterfront.
The project has been facing mounting criticism over a perceived lack of transparency, and concerns about data usage and intellectual property. In July, real estate developer and Waterfront Toronto board member Julie Di Lorenzo resigned in protest of the Plan Development Agreement signed by the two partners; she said it was not a good deal for the city.
In Tuesday’s media briefing, Sidewalk Toronto revealed that a series of “CivicLabs” sessions will be held on Oct. 3, Nov, 7, and Dec. 5 to deal with data governance and privacy. Those discussions will come at the tail end of the public consultation period that has been ongoing throughout the year.
A “comprehensive description of the component parts” of the Master Innovation and Development Plan is supposed to be finished in and presented at a different consultation meeting in November of 2018, with one final opportunity for public feedback in early 2019 when the full draft plan is released, before it’s finalized and sent to the City of Toronto and Alphabet for approval.
Despite committing up to US$50 million to the planning phase, it’s still not clear how Sidewalk Labs will make money from any of this.