Stanford CIS
Subscribe

As mass data collection becomes the norm, concerns about surveillance are growing

on

"This is why conversations regarding smart city data collection sometimes miss the point. Albert Gidari, Director of Privacy at the Stanford Centre for Internet and Society, believes focusing on personally identifiable information (PII) is myopic – particularly when there is so much valuable data that can be mined from citizens before you’ve asked for their identity directly.

Gidari said: “When the New York Taxi and Limo Commission was forced, under public record laws, to disclose the data collected from cab and Uber drivers in 2016, a data analyst was able to identify specific individuals, their addresses, their employers and their travel habits, even though not a single bit of PII had been collected.”"

Published in: Press , Smart Cities , Data Collection , Government Surveillance , Privacy