Sidewalk Labs partners with Toronto groups to collect data for public life study

New York-based research firm Sidewalk Labs has partnered with two Toronto organizations on astudy to analyze the usage of a city park.

While the groups are welcoming the partnership with the firm, some Smart Cities researchers question what Sidewalk Labs will do with the data and why the company never publicly discussedthe project until after its completion.

The studyis a partnership between the Thorncliffe Park Women's Committeeand the organizationPark People.

Sidewalk Labs has received attention recently for itsplans to develop ahigh-tech neighbourhood in the city.

Since the partnership between Waterfront Toronto and Google-affiliated Sidewalk Labs was announced in October 2017, the proposal has been marred by questions over what data will be collected, where it will be storedand who would be able to access it. An Ontarioauditor-general's report recently questioned why there weren't more specifics in the plan about how the data governance plan would work in the project.

Though Sidewalk Labs insists thatthe data collected in the R.V. Burgess project was broad and that it was sensitive to privacy issues, some critics question howit was able to collect the data about a Toronto park in the first place.

Collecting data to improve communities

The project began after theThorncliffe Park Women's Committeewas given a grant byPark People,a not-for-profit that works totransform communities through better parks.The Women's Committee encourages local residents many of whom are new immigrants to use the park in a meaningful way. Sidewalk Labs partnered with both organizationsand offered up its app calledCommonSpace.

"This is a project Ifeel is so exciting because it's an illustration of how technology can make thingsin caseseasierso communities can really advocate and have the information they need to get resources they need to support their work," said JesseShapins, director of public realmfor Sidewalk Labs.

TheThorncliffe Park Women's Committeeand Park People welcomed the opportunity to partner withSidewalk Labs on the study so it could better understand how their work has affected people in the community. Over the years, the committeehas introduced markets and a new caf in the park.

"We couldn't actually measure the impact of our work . . .because of limited resources," said Sabina Ali with the Thorncliffe Park Women's Committee.

"We thought it would really help usmeasure the impact of our programming in R.V. Burgess, and it would also help us in looking at the gaps."

Volunteers with the project collected data on people's estimated age andgender as well as what they were doing in the park.

Project a sign Sidewalk Labs is collecting data: expert

Public life studies area common tool in planning, according to Nabeel Ahmed with theToronto Open Smart Cities Forum, but he wonderswhy Sidewalk Labs never publicized that it was working with the groups to collect data during discussions about Quaysideuntil after its work on the project was finished.

"For the last six months, [Sidewalk Labs has] been saying it's too early to talk about what we're doing, and now we find out they've been working on this for three months," said Ahmed.

"That's unacceptable."

Sidewalk Labs said it never publicized the study in an effort to avoid any extra attention the park might receive.

"The reason we didn't make a big announcement has nothing to do with any privacy concerns," saidShapins.

Sidewalk Labs saidthe data is not for its use and it's only storing it for the organizations. It added thatthe data is non-personal and does not identify individuals.

"I feel like that argument that the data is harmlessis a distraction from the real issue, which is that they said we will not collect data and now they're collecting data," said Ahmed, who said there are privacy concerns even with general data.

Sidewalk Labs said it's given the information to the two groups for analysis. Preliminary findings from the data havebeen analyzed and posted on the Park Peopleblog.