When Billboards Stare Back: How Cities Can Reclaim the Digital Public Space - 13WS22493

Personal data-collecting devices are being deployed in public and semi-private physical spaces in cities at an unprecedented speed, and cities often lack knowledge about what sensors are being deployed or do not have the competences and capacity to address the privacy concerns they give rise to. Nonetheless, cities are leading the way in coming up with new approaches, regulations, policies and principles to protect citizens' privacy.

The Nesta Foundation, the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights and the City of Amsterdam have published a report on "When Billboards Stare Back: How Cities Can Reclaim the Digital Public Space", which analyses the state of the art of privacy in digital public spaces, illustrates what cities have done so far and puts forward recommendations for leveraging existing municipal powers to protect residents' privacy.

This event aims to tackle the challenges and privacy threats that the deployment of data-collecting sensors pose for cities in Europe. Building on the report, the panel will include leaders from cities (London, Amsterdam, The Hague, Leeds) and organisations (UCLG, Nesta, the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights) to discuss what cities are doing to regulate the deployment of such sensors, what challenges lie ahead and what recommendations cities from other European regions can learn about.