TORONTO: Canada's Digital Charter lacks sufficient legal enforcement power to effectively protect privacy and regulate use of personal data, according to critics worried that a smart city project in Toronto by Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs unit could be misused for mass surveillance.
The Digital Charter was announced this month to guide Canada on data and the digital economy, and mentions concerns about smart cities. Sidewalk Toronto is a data-driven urban development project that Sidewalk Labs has proposed for the city's harbourfront. The smart city development would use sensors in public areas to detect energy use, traffic and pollution.