New Toronto rules for data collection won’t be in place before final vote on Sidewalk Labs’ smart city project

Thestar.com
Jan. 17, 2020
Donovan Vincent

New rules and regulations governing privacy, data collection and digital infrastructure in Toronto will take until late 2021 to finalize, according to a new city report -- well after the March deadline for Waterfront Toronto to make its final decision on the fate of Sidewalk Labs’ Quayside project.

But Coun. Joe Cressy says the city has come up with a set of draft principles that will serve as a “starting point” in addressing these issues. And he says Toronto isn’t alone in playing catch up in this area.

Toronto is working on a Digital Infrastructure Plan, spurred in large part by Google sister firm Sidewalk Labs’ proposal to build a tech-driven neighbourhood on the city’s waterfront.

If approved, Quayside would have sensors embedded throughout the neighbourhood to collect data on everything from pedestrian traffic to energy use by residents and their recycling habits.

But the project has raised a host of questions about privacy and the collection and management of data.

As a result, the city began work on creating new rules and regulations -- following a motion moved by councillors Cressy and Paul Ainslie early last year -- that are to become a framework that could be applied to “smart city” projects like Quayside.

Waterfront Toronto, the tri-government agency working with Sidewalk Labs on the Quayside proposal, will decide at the end of March whether the Quayside project gets approved. But as a new report that goes to the city’s executive committee next week makes clear, the city’s Digital Infrastructure Plan won’t be finished until late next year.

But Cressy says the new report proposes five draft principles that could be applied in the interim.

The principles include requirements that the city’s data and digital infrastructure “protects the privacy of individuals in accordance with legislative requirements, and (is) safe from misuse, hacks, theft or breaches.”

Other principles call for digital infrastructure to be used to “create and sustain equity, inclusion and accessibility,” and that decisions around data and digital infrastructure be made democratically, ethically and transparently and be subject to oversight.

“These five principles are intended as a guiding framework to measure and evaluate all projects starting today,” Cressy said in an interview Thursday, adding the principles are also intended to protect the public interest.

“The principles are a starting point. We need a model that instills trust from the residents we serve,” the councillor added.

City council would need to approve the report and principles.

Acknowledging the city’s plan won’t be finished until after the decision on Sidewalk Labs’ project, Cressy noted many of cities are scrambling to come up with guidelines for data governance.

“Governments around the world are playing catch up on this because for a long time the private sector and the market were driving the conversation,” said Cressy, whose ward represents the area Quayside would be developed in.

He’s also a member of Waterfront Toronto’s board of directors.

The new report from the city’s chief technology officer notes that when the City of Toronto itself collects personal information it is regulated by acts such as the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

But governance over personal information or data collected by outside interests such as Sidewalk Labs is the area the city aims to tackle with the Digital Infrastructure Plan.

The city began gathering input from the public about the digital plan in meetings that launched in December. A second round of public consultations is set to begin later this year.

Among the recommendations from the public last month was a call for data to be collected only when necessary and that there will be rules for where data can be collected in the public sphere.

Individuals should also have the ability to opt out of providing data, and there needs to be education regarding what data is being collected and for what reasons, the public forums heard.