Do the Supposed Benefits of Smart Cities Really Outweigh the Privacy Risks?
"As data collection grows in scale, smart cities could become surveillance states in no time."
"As data collection grows in scale, smart cities could become surveillance states in no time."
"This frightening boost of capital to the surveillance state comes on top of $631 million in Centers for Disease Control funding for contact tracing tucked into the recently-passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Another $75 billion in proposed contact-tracing spending has been folded into in the House Democrats’ second stimulus bill, known as the HEROES Act."
Red-state governors threaten their own citizens with arrest if they don’t comply with contact tracing investigators — up to six months in jail in Texas!
"... what is assumed is more important than what is said."
"We’re going to empower the worst busybodies who are already insane with fear to run around collecting data for the government."
"It’s a concerted campaign to shift consumers towards a digital mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient."
"Airbnb does not want people who are "shy, anxious or depressed" to rent their apartments, condominiums or homes because those types of people are likely to leave negative comments."
"SmartRent uses smart devices, like light switches, thermostats, speakers, and numerous other devices to turn properties into real-time surveillance platforms."
"Are we saying that the state has the right to observe every single individual? That seems to me to be the big brother state quite honestly."
One panel discussion in particular caught my eye. The discussion titled "Building Fusion Centers And Combatting Evolving Threats" by Anil Markose, Senior VP for Booz Allan Hamilton, is designed to promote Homeland Security's Fusion Centers and the spread of biometrics to track people of interest.