Data and Digital Identity in the Cities

Elissa

The amount of data generated by human activity in cities is tremendous and is expected to grow every day. If for a long time cities (as authorities) were spectators rather than actors in terms of data use and management, this is no longer the case. Aware of the democratic, economic and ecological challenges related to this issue, many cities are embarking on projects for a more innovative usage and management of data generated by citizens. If these projects are at their starting stages, they are already projecting cities in a new era where they can aspire to a leading role on the (personal) data issue. During this session, we will discover some of these inspiring projects.

Introduction and moderation: Self Data Cities
Sarah Medjek, FING

Drawing on two major experiments on individual empowerment through their personal data, FING is launching a new project helping cities and public actors regaining control over the personal data of their citizens; Self Data Territorial. In collaboration with three big French cities, this project explores the ways of a new role allocation between territories, organizations and citizens in terms of data usage and management, and new ways for cities and public actors to guide personal data innovation.

Dutch Policy Lab on Digital Identity
Ivonne Ivonne Jansen-Dings, Head of Programme at Waag

In June the Ministry of Interior and the VNG (United Dutch Municipalities) together with the Amsterdam based innovation lab Waag have launched the first official Dutch Policy Lab on Digital Identity: This Digital Identity Lab is looking for new ideas, concepts and concrete tools that can support a reliable and secure digital identity. As we communicate via social media, manage our finances online, buy goods and do business with the government online, we are forced to provide a huge amount of our personal data every time. For example, today the Dutch citizens maintain countless digital identities: from a Facebook profile to a webshop account and from a travel product to a DigiD. This proliferation of identities increases the risk of privacy violation, encourages identity fraud and inhibits innovation. In the lab we investigate various ideas and applications that already exist in the field of digital identity and involve a wide array of stakeholders, including regular citizens. The process is setup to find new insights that can to support future policy making in this complex field.

The Platform of a City
Geoffrey Delcroix, Innovation manager at CNIL lab (linc) at CNIL

Presentation of the “The platform of a city” book, written by LINC (linc.cnil.fr) the innovation and foresight lab of CNIL, the french data protection and privacy authority.
This document is an exploration of the issues related to smart city and data uses in urban planning and services. It contains recommendations, in particular regarding the different tools that can be used in the future to create meaningful and controlled uses of personal data for public interest purposes (this part available in english here).

The promises of Smart city are indeed contradictory: personalizing everything while respecting the right to privacy, optimizing without rejecting. In the same time, major data companies are showing up on the market of smart cities, changing the level playing field. The challenge now is to produce new models for regulating city data, ones that respect individuals and their freedoms.

Interoperability as a service –  Semantic interoperability as a way of enabling peer to peer based models and solutions
Keith Dickerson, Director at Climate Associates

VICINITY H2020 project focused on developing semantic interoperability solutions focused on developing ways for devices owners to control data and valorise it while ensuring privacy and full awareness of what is being shared https://vicinity2020.eu/vicinity/. Consortium members are planning to designate
two panelists to drive the discussions at the session.

Session is moderated by: Sarah Medjek

Empowerment