Your cellphone knows when you are sleeping. It knows when youâre awake. It knows where youâve been and it sends all that information to Google.As Toronto contemplates allowing the American tech behemoth to build one of the worldâs first âsmart neighbourhoodsâ on the eastern waterfront, details have emerged of how Google proposes to collect and commodify data collected from millions of cellphones â and sell it to government.Sidewalk Labs, which is owned by Googleâs parent company, recently entered into negotiations to sell the state of Illinois an urban planning tool that maps out commuting patterns based on peopleâs cellphone location data, which the company âde-identifiesâ to protect privacy.The tool, called Replica, is a real-world example of what Sidewalk Labs â which has been vague about its plans for the future Quayside development â says it will do with data. And the company has said it will bring the program to Toronto.Read more: Waterfront Toronto ânot shying awayâ from Sidewalk Toronto data privacy questions, senior official saysTech expert resigns from advisory panel on Sidewalk Toronto over data ownership concernsSidewalk Labs launches research grants to study human behaviourâGPS data should provide the characteristics of individual travellers,â said two Illinois public servants in a public procurement document filed in February, adding that the depersonalized data allows for âanalysis of not only what trips are being made, but by whom.âThe state began negotiations for an anticipated three-year, $3.6 million sole-sourced contract for Replica earlier this year. The contract hasnât yet been signed, a state official said this week.In the wake of two high-profile resignations of Waterfront Toronto advisers who question whether the future development will benefit the public, and an Associated Press investigation that showed Google tracks people ...
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