Sidewalk Labs project means Toronto to have 'constitution-free zone,' CCLA warns

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sidewalk-labs-quayside-waterfront-toronto-constitution-free-zone-ccla-letter-1.5044813

by emptybits • 7 years ago

41 15 7 years ago

cbc.ca

zeropnc• 7 years ago

I sometimes wonder if the future of humanity sees the decline of the state, and people just live on corporate land (Sidewalk Labs as an early prototype of this idea) protected by corporate militaries (Blackwater)

NeedMoreTea• 7 years ago

All I can say to that is I hope not.

raxxorrax• 7 years ago

Downvotes indicate that you should better stop wondering immediately, citizen.

Freak_NL• 7 years ago

You're not far off.

An interesting tally was made recently¹ on the amount of privately owned land in London that fulfils the role of public squares, parks, and connecting passages between public roads. There is a lot of it, and you don't really notice it until you break their rules.

That is, if you are homeless, or just look destitute, or simply undesirable, you can be legally ordered to move on. You can be brutally awakened from napping on a (seemingly public) bench by private security appearing out of nowhere, simply because the local government made a deal where the project developer could do their project, as long as they provided a public square, or replaced a public road with a private pedestrian passage; but they own it rather than the public, and they can make their own rules there.

1: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/24/revealed-pseu...

ebeip90• 7 years ago

Sounds like the burbclaves in Snow Crash

renholder• 7 years ago

"People can't be watched all the time. They have a level of privacy and dignity and an ability to engage in free assembly or not. And the constitution protects that and creates that kind of country for us," he said.

I don't mean this as an affront but this is anthetical to one of their principal allies' views, in that the inability to be watched at all times is seen as a "direct threat" to security.

We need to conquer this on two fronts:

1. Whether governments need to have access to everything 24x7.

2. Whether businesses can subvert the desires of people whom don't expressly give consent for such monitoring for sales.

For point 2, take into consideration someone who wants to visit a person living in Quayside (pronounced: key-side, for our American friends). If they're not aware, they're caught in the dragnet surveillance of the area. Sure the people living there might consent to 24x7 monitoring but it shouldn't be an automatic assumption that everyone will. Consider those in the delivery services sector (e.g.: FedEx, UPS, the mail system, etc.) as a principal example of where compulsion might lead to undesired consequences.

For point 1, I haven't any clue as to what to do about it. I get the rationale behind why security services might deem it a "necessity" to see all the things, everywhere (especially, after being burned from 11 Sep) but, as has been demonstrable from the past, there is nothing preventing it from being abused. It's solely based on the "trust us" premise and that has never worked-out well for anyone, given enough time.

darkpuma2• 7 years ago

Governments wanting something they cannot or should not have is nothing new, nor is their fear mongering about security threats to get what they want.

darkpuma2• 7 years ago

"Sidewalk Labs recently offered a glimpse at a handful of high-tech prototypes it hopes to launch. These include hexagonal sidewalks that light up to indicate a change in a street's usage and heat up to reduce ice and snow."

This shit again? And now they have google on the hook too? Am I correct that they've dropped the solar panels from it as well, so they've dropped any pretense of this shit being anything other than an energy sink?

"Sidewalk Labs formally unveiled plans for Quayside, a new “smart” waterfront neighborhood in Toronto, last April, with the stated goals of conserving energy,"

Yeah, when I think "conserving energy" I think using electricity to melt ice, outside in the winter. What a farce. Godspeed to the CCLA.

Wyndtroy2012• 7 years ago

I have a better name for it, "Delta City".

Check out the pop culture classic, RoboCop, which besides being a popcorn chewing action film, contains a rather cynical, but prescient, view on the future of corporations and privatization of public interests.

For those unfamiliar or don't recall, in the film, the mayor signs a deal with the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) will be allowed to turn the run-down sections of Detroit into a high-end utopia called Delta City. Much fun, crime and corruption ensues.

Sidewalk Labs wants to make a better world for us. Ha. "I'll buy that for a dollar."

jacobush• 7 years ago

Paul Verhoeven is very prescient.

jakamau• 7 years ago

Not just Paul Verhoeven but the writers Neumeier and Miner, as well.

"You'll see that we've gambled...

...in markets usually regarded as nonprofit.

Hospitals. Prisons. Space exploration.

I say, good business is where you find it."

-OCP's Senior Vice President Richard "Dick" Jones

neilv• 7 years ago

"'Not good enough': Toronto privacy expert resigns from Sidewalk Labs over data concerns", 2018-10-21

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ann-cavoukian-sidewal...

FerosMorgen• 7 years ago

The privatization of public spaces is a serious ongoing concern in all Canadian urban centers. In its more insidious manifestations it gives corporations power over homeless individuals' rights, by the removal of places of rest, drinking fountains and the coercive removal of the homeless.

nv-vn• 7 years ago

I get that there's privacy concerns over a neighborhood owned by Google (and a government agency) but like... where did the notion that it's "constitution free" come from? If it's partially run by the government then how can that even be the case in the sense of "this is private property, so laws restricting government don't apply?" And further, privacy concerns are totally absent from the Canadian constitution as far as I can tell. This just seems like one of those issues where people lose track of telling the truth in order to push their narrative, like when Net Neutrality groups basically stated that "Google will cost $1/search if we lose Net Neutrality!"

Sidewalk Labs project means Toronto to have 'constitution-free zone,' CCLA warns

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