Waterfront Toronto and members of a group of tech, data and privacy experts advising the corporation on Sidewalk Labs’ proposal for a data-driven neighbourhood on the east waterfront want a master plan for the project delayed.Members of the digital strategy advisory panel and Waterfront Toronto met Thursday with Sidewalk Labs to discuss a set of proposals released by the U.S.-based firm Monday afternoon. The proposals outline strategies for handling privacy, and the collection, control, and access to data that would be collected from a “smart-city” neighbourhood Sidewalk Labs wants to build on a 12-acre site near Parliament St. and Lake Shore Blvd. E. called Quayside.The issue of collecting data concerning residents and visitors to the neighbourhood has been a controversial one. In the new proposals, Sidewalk Labs has pledged not to control the data collected at the site and is calling for a special civic data trust to do so based on “responsible data use” guidelines.But some members of the committee advising Waterfront Toronto threatened to resign this week, saying Sidewalk Labs’ proposals don’t go far enough.There was no talk of resignations after Thursday’s meeting. Instead, there was a general call for both further meetings to discuss the proposals and a delay of the draft master plan Sidewalk Labs was hoping to deliver early next year. The panel members said more time is needed to grapple with the myriad issues and questions raised by the data issue.“We need to push it back,” panel member Andrew Clement, professor emeritus in the University of Toronto’s faculty of information, said during the meeting, adding that time is needed to develop a data governance framework that “can inform the master plan.”Read more:Sidewalk Labs will be a ‘catalyst’ for other innovations in Quayside, CEO saysSidewalk Labs promises not to control data collected in Quayside’s public spac ...
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