TPRC 2024: The 52nd Research Conference on Communications, Information and Inter

Link to paper

Abstract:
This study investigates the policies accompanying initiatives among many cities to become “smart.” Smart Cities technologies historically began with monitoring systems designed to improve the efficiencies of the physical and social systems required in contemporary urban environments, using communication networks as an increasingly capable backbone for gathering and transmitting all sorts of information (Mitchell, 1995). In the 21st century, several technical capabilities converged to create unique challenges regarding the intersection of smart city systems, privacy and civil liberties. Here we first examine how cities are crafting ordinances around surveillance technologies which dovetail with smart city technologies, paying particular attention to those that implicate AI. How they frame the need for regulation invokes several concerns that range from the administrative to data governance to human rights.