General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[dtkvictim]

It's interesting that whilst Kitchener is often touted as the tech capital of Canada, we have never been in the discussion as a 'smart city'. Perhaps we may this a goal:

https://www.thestar.com/news/atkinsonser...model.html

Good. I especially don't want "smart cities" to be in consideration until Canadians have adequate data ownership and privacy protections. Even with those in place, I don't see any situation where a private company implementing a smart city could benefit that citizens. The only motivation a private company would have would be to sell your data or more efficiently sell you products via the data they collect. The only "smart" product I keep in my home is my phone, and I'd not like to have more of them imposed on me in public places than they already are.

If the governments or universities of Canada want to find and implement tech driven solutions to genuine problems (and not solutions in search of a problem) at the taxpayers expense, with no profit motive, I'm happy to have that happen so long as citizens are protected. But there is no need for the "smart" label here, I think that attracts the wrong kinds of attention.