(23rd Thomson Archyde.com Foundation) – Thousands of workers are now working to build the city of the future in the desert region of northwestern Saudi Arabia. A linear smart city called “The Line” runs through the city center. The concept is carbon-free, flying taxis, holography for teachers, and even a floating artificial moon.
The Line will appear in the industrial city “NEOM”, which is being developed under the auspices of Crown Prince Mohammed, aiming to diversify the economy of the oil giant Saudi Arabia. NEOM will cost $500 billion and is scheduled for completion in 2025.
The Line will be a city with a unique structure in which residences and offices are stacked vertically. The city will analyze the data of its nine million residents, but it will also give residents more rights over how the data is used and, in a world first, pay for the data, project executives say.
Joseph Bradley, CEO of NEOM Tech & Digital, which oversees this system called a “consent management platform,” said, “Without trust, there is no data. Without data, there is no value.” Told.
“This technology makes it easy for users to verify and understand the intent of using their personal information, and provides financial compensation for allowing their data to be used,” he said.
The Line is a city designed around artificial intelligence (AI), and like many smart cities, data is used to manage things like electricity, water, garbage, transportation, healthcare and public safety.
Data will be collected through residents’ smartphones, homes, facial recognition cameras and many other sensors, and the information will be sent to the city to help anticipate user needs, Bradley said.
However, experts say Saudi Arabia, which has so far neglected human rights protections, has little hope of using data responsibly or protecting individual privacy.
“It’s understandable that there are concerns about surveillance,” says Vincent Mosco, who studies the social impact of technology.
The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology did not immediately respond to a Archyde.com request for comment.
As all aspects of our daily lives become more digital, there are growing concerns about the ownership, use and value of personal information.
Data rights experts, economists and some lawmakers have suggested paying for data.
But experts are divided over how much to pay, if any. There are also voices saying that if we put a price on data, the value of personal information will differ from person to person, creating a two-tiered system that will further strengthen the disparities created by the “digital divide.”
Marwa Fatahta of Access Now, a digital rights organization, said platforms that ask for consent to use information “are no substitute for data protection regulations that protect personal information.” “It looks like a scourge of privacy awaits,” he says. .
Saudi Arabia has introduced personal data protection laws, and Bradley said NEOM executives are addressing privacy concerns.
Fahad Mohamed, 28, an engineer in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, said he would agree to provide his data if he lived at The Line. “My data is already being used by social media platforms, ride-hailing apps, etc. The[NEOM]system is better because it pays for it,” he said.
As digitization grows, so do concerns about surveillance and privacy.
Users of NEOM’s consent management platform can choose what personal data they share and who has access to it, monitor how that data is used, and opt out of the platform at any time, Bradley said.
The system will also alert users when data is used without consent or when there is suspicious activity.
But Faisal Al-Ali, 33, a marketing expert in Dubai, is not convinced. “How can you trust that your data will be used only to the extent you want it and only between third parties and services of your choosing? Is there any guarantee that it will not be used for any other reason? 100% trust. It’s not possible,” he said.
Surveillance isn’t the only concern surrounding The Line. Some of the world’s smart cities are also complaining about feeling isolated and deprived of human contact.
South Korea’s smart city Songdo International City, for example, remains sparsely populated despite its state-of-the-art facilities. Samia of Ain Shams University in Cairo says that the cost of convenience, such as being able to control the lights in the house with the operation of a smartphone and having trash sent immediately to the underground sorting facility through pipes, is the lack of human contact. Sociology professor Kedru explains.
“Human connectivity is an important social infrastructure. Complex data infrastructures usually fail to meet the most important social and cultural needs of city life,” Kedr said.
Some people in Saudi Arabia seem to agree. Fahad Algofairi asked on Twitter: “Wouldn’t the billions of dollars we spend on NEOM be better spent improving existing cities in other parts of the country?”
(Reporter by Menna A. Farouk)