Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs scales back Toronto smart city project prompted by local privacy critics, who argue it exploits people's data from the physical world
Faced with an array of opponents for its sensor-laden city of tomorrow in Toronto, a Google sibling has dramatically dialed back plans. Tweets: @rafael_a_calvo , @mikethebbop , @bhaggart , @sallan_found , @nytimes , @jrreed , @metapunker , @cabrowns , @biancawylie , @fromedome , @christinespolar , @alexbozikovic , and @rickgladstone Tweets: Rafael Calvo / @rafael_a_calvo : Designing Utopias/Dystopias requires a level of citizen consultation that companies fail at. “You Can't Fight City Hall. But Maybe You Can Fight Google.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Ira Michael Blonder / @mikethebbop : Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs takes a big hit in Toronto: ""This thing has blown up on them," said one of the plan's leading critics, Jim Balsillie..." https://www.nytimes.com/... Blayne Haggart / @bhaggart : Worth noting: “The huge engineered wood beams will still be used but originally they were to come from a factory that Sidewalk would help establish, an investment that the scaled-down project cannot justify on its own.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @sallan_found : Toronto project — which combined environmentally advanced construction with a plan for sensors to track residents' movements and actions — was hit by formidable opposition. “Environmentally advanced construction” looks like collateral damage here https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimes : A sibling company of Google wanted to create a sensor-laden “city of the future” in Toronto. Its opponents, who saw it as a recipe for surveillance-driven, corporate-controlled urban dystopia, fought back and succeeded. https://www.nytimes.com/... J.R. Reed / @jrreed : Last June, Google's Sidewalk Labs released thousands of pages for a master development plan in Toronto, covering 800 acres. A couple of weeks ago, it unveiled a much watered-down outline with new privacy protections. Judgement day comes May 20th. https://www.nytimes.com/... Scott Wilson / @metapunker : After admitting that it had underestimated #privacy worries with its original plan, the @Google sibling, @sidewalklabs, has retreated. @ianrausten @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... “...They were playing us like a bunch of colonial supplicants and suckers.” Jim Balsillie #Canada Carlos Brown / @cabrowns : “The story of how Toronto walked back the Google plan is in part a tale of locals taking on a big company. But it also reflects a growing pushback around the world against big tech” https://www.nytimes.com/... Bianca Wylie / @biancawylie : At this stage, it's 100% on our governments to admit this was a badly structured tender, which has informed a badly executed process - one that should have been shut down a long time ago. Surreal it's still going on. https://www.nytimes.com/... Dan Frommer / @fromedome : “I smoked them out. They were playing us like a bunch of colonial supplicants and suckers.” — former BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsillie (remember him?) on... Google's Sidewalk Labs. https://www.nytimes.com/... Christine Spolar / @christinespolar : Mr. Balsillie described Sidewalk's Toronto plan as a move by Google to use data from people's lives in the physical world in the same way it exploits their online lives — an assertion that Sidewalk denies."This is the mother lode," Mr. Balsillie said. https://www.nytimes.com/... Alex Bozikovic / @alexbozikovic : An @nytimes @ianrausten piece on Sidewalk Labs in Toronto foregrounds the critics: https://www.nytimes.com/... @rickgladstone : The parent of technology behemoth Google is used to getting its way. Not so in Toronto, where a Google sibling company has been vexed by critics of its plan for a ‘city of tomorrow.’ They describe it as a privacy-plundering dystopia. @ianrausten https://www.nytimes.com/...