Sidewalk Labs smart city project pulls out of Toronto

Via The Verge

Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, recently announced that they will be shutting down Quayside, a plan to turn part of Toronto’s waterfront into a high-tech smart city.

Sidewalk Labs claimed the decision was made due to the economic uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus crisis and Waterfront Toronto, the non-profit partner representing Canada’s government, said they were not involved in the decision to end the project.

The announcement seems to be a victory for privacy. The project and the company faced criticism for years around several privacy topics such as the collection of data, whether Alphabet/Google would monetize or sell the data, the fact that there would be no clear opt-out method and the fact that surveillance was built into the smart-city project itself.

For more details, visit The Verge.