Among other things, the development planned
to have heated streets to melt ice and snow on
contact, as well as sensors that would monitor
traffic and protect pedestrians.
But some Canadians balked at the privacy
implications of giving one of the most data-
hungry companies on the planet the means
to wire up everything from street lights to
pavement. Changes were since made to make
it more palatable but some celebrated Google’s
decision to scrap it.
“This is a major victory for the responsible
citizens who fought to protect Canada’s
democracy, civil and digital rights, as well as
the economic development opportunity,” said
former BlackBerry chief executive Jim Balsillie, a
smartphone pioneer. “Sidewalk Toronto will go
down in history as one of the more disturbing
planned experiments in surveillance capitalism.”
Doctoroff had said the company was not looking
to monetize people’s personal information in
the way that Google does now with search
information. He had said the plan was to invent
so-far-undefined products and services that
Sidewalk Labs could market elsewhere.
Some wanted the public to get a cut of the
revenue from products developed using
Canada’s largest city as an urban laboratory.
Concerns in Canada intensified following a series
of privacy scandals at Facebook and Google.
Complaints about the proposed development
prompted Waterfront Toronto to re-do the
agreement to ensure a greater role for the
official agency. A prominent Toronto developer
resigned from the Waterfront Toronto board
over the project.