Sidewalk Labs stressed that private data would be protected as part of its long-awaited master plan, including a pledge that information will be collected under rigid guidelines and overseen by an independent trust.

But despite those continued assurances privacy advocates still have serious concerns.

“Torontonians challenged us at every step and that made the plan better,” Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff, speaking to the media after the more than 1,500-page document was released on Monday. “We heard serious concerns about privacy. Boy, did we hear concerns about privacy.”

What Google’s sister firm is now calling the “urban data trust” would be in charge of balancing personal privacy, public interest and innovation, and would establish a clear process for approving any initiative that involves the collection or use of “urban data” — defined in the master plan as information gathered “in the city’s physical environment, including the public realm, publicly available space and even some private buildings.”

The trust will be managed through a democratic process, according to the proposal, and Doctoroff said it “will operate consistent with and addition to existing and future privacy laws in Ontario and Canada.”

It would establish a set of Responsible Data Use (RDU) Guidelines that would apply to anyone looking to collect or use urban data in its ambitious 190-acre Innovative Development and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) District proposed for eastern waterfront, which includes the 12-acre Quayside site near Parliament St. and Queens Quay E. and 20 acres of the yet-to-be-developed, city-owned property in the Port Lands called “Villiers West.”

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In a presentation accompanying the release of the master plan, Sidewalk committed to not disclosing personal information to third parties without explicit consent, not selling personal information and not using personal information for advertising.

But critics warn that what Sidewalk Labs is proposing is largely untested and could result in breaches of personal privacy.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has launched court action attempting to halt the project, which they predict will result in Canadians serving as “Google’s lab rat.”

Speaking generally, Brenda McPhail, the CCLA’s director of the privacy, technology and surveillance project, said proposed oversight doesn’t guarantee consumer protection.

“It is a sexy new name for the same old thing, which is information about you and I and every other person who moves through that neighbourhood,” McPhail said.

Any outcome, she noted, rests on yet-to-be-mapped-out technology and the ways it could be embedded throughout the community. One example would be sensors capable of facial recognition, she said.

“The kind of behavioural data you could get if you followed somebody around would potentially be the kind of data collected and integrated,” McPhail said.

What is also of concern, McPhail said, is the proposed governance system meant to protect the data has not been tested, as there is no functional equivalent to the model they are proposing.

“That doesn’t mean it is a bad idea, it means it is an untested idea,” said McPhail, adding do we put our faith in that untested idea “when the cost of its failure would be a profound invasion of privacy for everybody who moves through that neighbourhood.”

Sidewalk proposes to make urban data publicly accessible by default, and integrated it into existing open data portals such as the one hosted by the City of Toronto. The company says it wants to use data collection to make life more efficient for the people who live, work and pass through their proposed smart-city development.

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For example, as outlined in the master plan, consider a woman with a cane crossing a boulevard. She typically might not make it across but an adaptive traffic signal can detect if she’s still in the middle of the street and give her more time.

Sidewalk Labs also wants to give cyclists priority with “green waves,” a concept pioneered in Copenhagen that uses signal coordination to help cyclists avoid red lights, so they don’t have to keep starting and stopping.

To “implement the systems needed to achieve quality-of-life objectives,” the company aims to obtain third-party technology, partner with third parties and give priority to Canadian businesses.

An ultra secure Wi-Fi network will be equipped with “advanced security capabilities,” the plan adds, to detect potential security risks and disconnect impacted devices from the network.

There is also the “Koala,” a standardized mount that would make it “fast, inexpensive and safe to install a device on a light pole, or other street fixture,” with minimal disruption.

“Koala mounts would make it easy and quick to connect to a ubiquitous network and collect urban data for a multitude of purposes, from bicycle counting, to air quality monitoring, to interactive public art installations.”

David Hulchanski, a professor of housing and community development at the University of Toronto, said whatever proposal comes forward, Sidewalk Labs is new as a developer and is tightly linked to companies that use data largely for advertising.

“They want to test out how you monetize urban life, the city,” Hulchanski said. “You have millions of people in a tiny mono space and that is worth a lot of money if you can monetize that by having identifiable, individualized data.”

Conservative MP Peter Kent (Thornhill), a Sidewalk critic, said there’s still a “pretty broad range of questions despite Mr. Doctoroff’s assurances on the protection of private data,” adding he intended to study the proposal closely.

“I think there is still quite a long conversation to go before that reassurance can be taken at face value,” Kent said.

Most people, Doctoroff said, already understand their data is constantly being collected but the company understands it must be held to a higher standard.

“This project presents a unique opportunity to work together to test solutions to meet the challenges of the digital age, including and particularly with regard to data and privacy,” he said.

“We believe that this approach will set a new standard for the world.”