For Immediate Release
S.T.O.P. Launches Smart Cities Public Education Campaign
Provides a framework to fight police, education, and transit tech.
(New York, NY, 3/22/2021) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy group, launched Just Cities, an education campaign detailing the dangers and responses to smart city technology. Intended for nationwide use, the three-part framework helps activists, lawmakers, and members of the public identify common risks from expanding municipal technology in policing, education, and transit. Produced in partnership with advocates, community members, and policymakers, the website offers best practices for advancing equity in civic tech and opposing growing surveillance.
SEE: S.T.O.P. – Just Cities Tech: A Beginner’s Guide to the All-Too Dumb World of Smart Cities Technology
https://www.justcities.tech/
“We’re calling on policymakers to make smart decisions when it comes to so-called smart cities,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Research Director Eleni Manis. “We’ve built a framework that advocates and community members can use to insist that municipal tech serves community needs and to stop law enforcement from accessing data from these tools.”
“Vendors promise us ‘smart cities,” but their tech is pretty dumb,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “These systems suck up our data in the promise of a better life but offer little more than corporate capture of the digital commons. By changing our focus from ‘smart cities’ to ‘just cities’, we can fight for the technology that will actually improve our lives instead of just surveil them.”
SEE: Government Technology - Is ‘Smart City’ a Euphemism for ‘Plain Old Surveillance’?
https://www.govtech.com/smart-cities/is-smart-city-a-euphemism-for-plain-old-surveillance.html
Foreign Policy - ‘Smart’ Cities Are Surveilled Cities
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/17/smart-cities-surveillance-privacy-digital-threats-internet-of-things-5g/
Key Findings Include:
- Smart cities tech is racially biased, frequently inaccurate and ineffective, and drains local budgets;
- Police tech fails to meet the most minimal standards for public safety, real-world performance, community input, transparency and accountability;
- “Police technology” is more than just the tools that police own, and includes any system they can access, such as school and transit tech;
- Schools should reject EdTech (educational technology) that helps law enforcement target BIPOC students, low-income students, immigrants, and other overpoliced groups;
- Schools should practice transparency, establish detailed oversight plans, minimize data collection, and only acquire EdTech with community consent;
- Transit data should be used to meet transit needs only, collected with community consent and oversight, and kept safe from police;
- Before purchasing expensive “smart” tech, cities should consider investing those funds toward enhanced transit equity and infrastructure.
The Just Cities campaign launched as New York City Mayor Eric Adams continues to promote the adoption of unproven smart cities technology that puts New Yorkers’ privacy at risk, including gun detection software and digital IDs. It also comes after the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill called for the allocation of half a billion dollars toward investment in smart city surveillance technologies.
SEE: NY Daily News - Adams must not drag us toward tech dystopia
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-adams-must-not-drag-us-toward-tech-dystopia-20220125-27ds6gddx5brdkl2pxlieyj5bq-story.html
Crain’s New York - Lawmakers weigh new digital ID option for New Yorkers
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/technology/new-york-city-lawmakers-weigh-new-digital-id-option
The Intercept - Senate Infrastructure bill would invest $500 million in “smart city” surveillance technology
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/06/infrastructure-bill-smart-city-surveillance/
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn
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