Innovation foundation Nesta has issued a new report in which it urges city governments to take a more responsible approach to collecting and using personal data.
Nesta’s report is titled “Reclaiming the Smart City: Personal Data, Trust and the New Commons”, and follows a recent poll in which 75% of respondents indicated they were concerned about the privacy of their data. The report urges city governments, which are collecting and using personal data in ever greater volumes as smart innovations rely more heavily than ever on data for efficiency and optimisation, to take more responsibility or risk collapses in the trust of their citizens.
The applications of data in smart cities include all aspects of city planning, as planners can employ information on how citizens use the city as a means to adapt to this behaviour. However, to ensure that this impact can be delivered successfully, transparency, accountability and trust need to be increased for all data-driven projects.
What recommendations has Nesta made?
Based on the case studies that Nesta undertook in preparing the report, the organisation has compiled a list of recommendations which can help policymakers shape more responsible approaches to collecting and using personal data as their cities become smarter.
Among the recommendations were that policymakers should:
- Create test-beds for new services that give users more privacy and control in their cities
- Develop clear ethical principles and build consensus to translate them into concrete policies
- Form partnerships with private sector stakeholders, and with other city governments to share best practices, and
- Engage with the public on the use of surveillance technologies.
In addition, local authorities should increase the availability of information and training that will allow members of the public to strengthen their digital skills and raise awareness of how their data is being used.
Tom Symons, a co-author of the report, said: “Data should be the fundamental public infrastructure of the 21st century, as were roads, street lights and clean drinking water in the past… We want city governments to start reconceiving data as new type of common good.”
