A report by the National Endowment for Democracy and International Forum for Democratic Studies.
From the Executive Summary:
Through “smart city” projects, municipal officials around the world are
deploying digital tools to collect data about urban life, analyze trends, and
automate governance. Billed as cutting-edge solutions for connectivity and
efficiency, these projects—which leverage new capacities created by artificial
intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT)—pose a range of risks to
democracy if not implemented following democratic principles of transparency
and accountability. If mismanaged, they could serve as vectors for malign
authoritarian influence; undermine procedural norms of good governance; and
raise the specter of mass surveillance. The global trend toward democratic
backsliding may exacerbate and, in turn, be exacerbated by these dangers.
This collection, the second in our “Making Tech Transparent” series, surveys the
democracy risks posed by smart cities and examines how they are taking shape
in two countries affected by backsliding: Mauritius and Brazil. It addresses
the critical importance of embedding smart city projects in participatory
processes that reinforce democratic norms, and the obstacles that currently
exist to realizing this vision. Key points include:
• Smart cities are ultimately one of many arenas in which democratic
principles are colliding with a technocratic authoritarian vision built on
data collection, one championed by but in no way limited to the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). In order to leverage municipal digitalization for
democracy and ensure that emerging technologies serve the societies which
deploy them, bolstering and expanding mechanisms for oversight and
stakeholder engagement will be key.
• Vendors based in the PRC, such as Huawei, are prominent in global smart
cities sales. The significant presence of Huawei and other PRC-based
firms in this industry raises particular concerns around the intertwining of
digitalization with PRC political influence, as well as the uses to which the
data collected from smart cities will be put. Yet risks from the transfer of
both governance functions and personal data to private companies extend
beyond those cases in which PRC vendors are involved.
Read the full summary and report (pdf, 34 pp)
Great thanks to Joe Cadillic for sending this along.