Like it or not, technology continues to play an ever-increasing role in the privacy concerns of our daily lives. Aside from the devices in your pockets, backpack, home, and office, tech is also being rapidly integrated into the infrastructure of our cities and towns. Some of this tech is fairly innocuous, simply meant to provide more reliable and affordable utilities through automation. Other types of smart city technology, however, have led to privacy concerns about invasive tracking of citizens or exploitation of these systems for nefarious purposes.
The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) created the following infographic that offers an overview of smart city technology in transportation, utilities, telecom, government services, and environmental sectors. You’re probably already aware of some of these systems, like digital utility usage meters, parking sensors, and traffic monitoring software. Other systems in the graphic are still on the cutting edge, and may not have been implemented in your area yet.
What are your privacy concerns about smart cities and how their underlying tech is used? It’s worth keeping these in mind and voicing them in the future, because it seems unlikely that our cities and towns will become less tech-reliant any time soon.
