Educating Neighbourhoods on Safe Street Practices

Municipalities struggle to regulate proper parking practices in residential areas resulting in increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, large ticket fines, and road blockages. Mistakes in parking and large fines can be avoided by providing residents information on what parking regulations apply to specific areas in a municipality. Smart city solutions allow municipalities to track an individual and provide geolocation specific answers to parking information. Instead of searching for a parking meter an individual can simply check their electronic device to assist them with their parking creating a safer neighbourhood.

Technologies

Parking Application - A software application providing access to parking bylaws based on the users location, serving as a virtual parking meter for temporary parking permits, identifying nearby locations with parking space.

Monitoring - The municipality can use sensors and photographing technology in the neighbourhood to track patterns in traffic, send roadside services to residents requiring assistance, and collect data informing future traffic bylaws.

Managing Liabilities

Privacy

Issues.

⚠️ Civic engagement tools will encounter privacy issues where they collect personal information of individuals. Since the legal definition of “personal information” in Canada includes information about an identifiable individual – even if the individual is not directly identified – civic engagement tools will run into privacy issues where they record recognizable images of individuals or record routes traceable to individuals.

Managing Issues.

✅ Don’t track. Civic engagement tools don’t necessarily need to track identities. Employ tools that don’t associate individuals with content.

✅ De-identify at the source. Many tools allow for engagement without collecting personal information. Doing so at the source helps prevent privacy issues from cropping up later.

✅ De-identify as soon as possible. If personal information absolutely must be collected, it should be stripped away as soon as possible.

✅ Limit data collection to only that which is needed. Data collection strategies aggregate engagement numbers and location-less data collection rather than individual-specific engagement locales avoid engaging more serious privacy concerns.

✅ Ensure that partners or contractors follow collection restrictions. When purchasing data from private companies, ensure that they are upholding their own privacy obligations under relevant legislation.

✅ Follow good privacy practices.

Security Issues

Issues.

⚠️ Privacy issues inherent to civic engagement tools will include security issues, as data that does not initially identify individuals can do so in combination with other data.

Managing Issues.

✅ Many of the same solutions to privacy issues will address security issues: e.g., de-identify at source if possible, or as soon as possible if otherwise. Where personal information is collected, it should be held in a secure location.

✅ Access should be limited to those with a need to use the information.

✅ Follow good security practices.