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You can have a smart city without assigning a unique identifier to each individual between collections of data (ie by relying on aggregate data instead), or usi
by ppeetteerr 9y ago
You can have a smart city without assigning a unique identifier to each individual between collections of data (ie by relying on aggregate data instead), or using the equivalent of a session identifier.
For instance, a trashcan filling up can correlate to the number of people who use public transport, but you don't have to say person X took the bus then used the trash can.
- ISL 9y agoBut you can correlate the timeseries of crosswalk events that leave from one city block, follow a regular pattern, then a bus boarding, then a bus departure, then a regular trash-can event. Do a thing regularly, or have enough "anonymized" sensors with sufficient resolution, and one can mine a lot from apparently very little.
- vorpalhex 9y agoEven if the system doesn't do this directly, it's easy for a contractor with the data to do as much if the data is highly accurate. I hope that some mitigations are being put in place by limiting data accuracy to relatively wide windows (and the wideness of those windows will need to vary depending on how busy a thing is).
- bo1024 9y agoThis is the kind of thing that the field of "differential privacy" excels at and should be used for!