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What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

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Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#71
I'm not quite sure how this is portrayed as NIMBYism.

As a Toronto resident there was more than enough news about how well reasoned arguments from Privacy experts weren't addressed very well by Sidewalk labs.

It isn't a very trivial thing when high profile people like Ann Cavoukian resigns from the project.

Portraying it as a case of NIMBYism gone too far is just revisionist history.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#72
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did money flow from the city to Alphabet? My understanding was that it was hugely in the opposite direction, with sidewalk investing alphabet money into the project.

right because with Google, the customer is the product.

The customer (and their data) is the raw material from which products are created. E.g. an advert targeting product.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#73
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the relationship advice goes "when someone shows you who they are believe them." Plenty documented examples of Googling acting in the stated way across various products. No reason to assume they won't act the same in this case sooner or latter.

What evidence is there that "google hates passwords"? That's literally the only way to log into a google account.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/google-fingerprint-chrom...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/24/google-pa...

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#74

I'm not quite sure how this is portrayed as NIMBYism. As a Toronto resident there was more than enough news about how well reasoned arguments from Privacy experts weren't addressed very well by Sidewalk labs. It isn't a very trivial thing when high profile people like Ann Cavoukian resigns from the project. Portraying it as a case of NIMBYism gone too far is just revisionist history.

Agreed. Most people I know were at least curious/interested about the project, but also had serious reservations about Google's privacy and data collection and wanted stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#75
post #74

I'm not quite sure how this is portrayed as NIMBYism. As a Toronto resident there was more than enough news about how well reasoned arguments from Privacy experts weren't addressed very well by Sidewalk labs. It isn't a very trivial thing when high profile people like Ann Cavoukian resigns from the project. Portraying it as a case of NIMBYism gone too far is just revisionist history.

Agreed. Most people I know were at least curious/interested about the project, but also had serious reservations about Google's privacy and data collection and wanted stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used.

>>stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used.

Beyond that, how many would have opted for "don't collect let alone use anything about me". I have never met anyone who actually wants their physical movement to be tracked by advertisers, not for infinite starbucks discounts. Most hesitate at the idea of employers or even family members tracking them 24/7.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#76
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Most people I know were at least curious/interested about the project, but also had serious reservations about Google's privacy and data collection and wanted stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used.

>>stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used. Beyond that, how many would have opted for "don't collect let alone use anything about me". I have never met anyone who actually wants their physical movement to be tracked by advertisers, not for infinite starbucks discounts. Most hesitate at the idea of employers or even family members tracking them 24/7.

> Most hesitate at allowing their employers to track them after hours

Is that a real thing?

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#77
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>stricter oversight on how their personal data would be used. Beyond that, how many would have opted for "don't collect let alone use anything about me". I have never met anyone who actually wants their physical movement to be tracked by advertisers, not for infinite starbucks discounts. Most hesitate at the idea of employers or even family members tracking them 24/7.

> Most hesitate at allowing their employers to track them after hours Is that a real thing?

Do you have a work-issued cellphone? I do. I also carry my own phone but my job requires that I have the work phone on me 24/7 when out of the office.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#78
This project was dead once the backlash against Big Tech picked up in 2017. A project like this requires the feds to be totally on board, have the power to green light everything quickly, and have tons of capital to deploy. Unfortunately for Sidewalk Labs, it's not possible for an Alphabet company to build in Saudi Arabia or China.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But people do have to travel through there. Commissioners Ave is the only real east-west fare through the entire region. I used to have to bus through that region every single day (I don't miss the 72 Cherry one bit). Managing privacy permissions of anyone just commuting through would be a logistical nightmare—and not just for Sidewalk.

Sidewalk would collect more personal, identifiable data on pass-through commuters than governments and companies already do? Maybe, and if so it's a valid point. But I'd bet (money) not. No facial recognition would be used. Doubt they'd track you in a bus. They were well aware of privacy concerns and their data collection would be under intense scrutiny. Data wouldn't be used outside Sidewalk without consent, de-iden…

Your first sentence is exactly what I was speaking to.

As for the rest, I'm not much of a gambler.

Alphabet's current policies on data collection are typically opt-out, so I didn't hold out much hope when I largely saw a lot of hand-waving surrounding data policies until the project was pressed by the public about it. That cost me a lot of confidence the project.

And I come from the place of following the project eagerly at the start. Even looked for jobs with them at one point.

Re: What killed Quayside, Sidewalk Labs’ ambitious smart city in Toronto?

#80

The best part about new 21st century cities being built from scratch is kindergarten for tenure with primary services. Resetting tenure for a new century solves 99% of the problems with trying to build on-top of inefficiency (schools, public utilities, local government, etc). Toronto would have been better off with a sister city, developing a DFW-like economic area for the future instead of accelerating urban rot.

>is kindergarten for tenure with primary services. i know what those words mean, but not in this context. what does this mean?

I think it means "there are no employees in school, fire, health, police services to resist reform" in a tone somewhere around "condescending."
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