The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The shadow of the smart lamppost has not disappeared. The Transport Department needs to clarify the doubts

2021-03-26T23:10:29.123Z


The Transport Department completed the installation of about 1,200 sets of traffic detectors on major trunk lines and roads at the end of last year, with the purpose of improving the efficiency of traffic and accident management and facilitating citizen planning. However, this matter has recently attracted media attention.


01 view

Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2021-03-27 07:00

Last update date: 2021-03-27 07:00

The Transport Department completed the installation of about 1,200 sets of traffic detectors on major trunk lines and roads at the end of last year, with the purpose of improving the efficiency of traffic and accident management and facilitating citizens’ journey planning. However, this matter has recently attracted media attention because the government may be able to learn from it. About 300 sets of Bluetooth detectors collect personal data to learn the whereabouts of citizens.

Recall that the turmoil of smart lampposts two years ago brought the mutual trust between officials and the people to a low point, and it has not yet recovered. Even if this project is only collecting traffic data for the benefit of society, the public will inevitably still question whether the data is used for other purposes.

The department must explain the details frankly on this in order to convince the industry and the general public to gradually develop Hong Kong into a smart city.

The government's smart lamppost installation plan has brought privacy concerns.

(Profile picture / Photo by Luo Junhao)

Suspected of collecting excessive data

According to the Department’s vision, the Bluetooth detectors installed on the lampposts of the street lights will be matched with the MAC Address of the Bluetooth device in the car, and then the average traffic on the road section will be calculated based on the time interval between the home addresses and the detectors. Time and speed, and related traffic data will be released on the "HKeMobility" app and the "Data Link" website.

Regarding the protection of personal data, the Transport Department stated that only part of the numbers will be extracted for matching, and the data will be deleted after matching and real-time analysis. It has also submitted a privacy impact assessment report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. As a result, the Office did not respond to the report. opinion.

In an interview with the newspaper, the deputy director Qiu Guoding said that this plan did not use smart lampposts, but instead made ordinary street lamps "smart."

However, the department's reply apparently failed to quell public doubts.

Although the public hope to have more real-time road information to facilitate travel, it does not mean that they are willing to ignore all kinds of privacy issues.

In response to this topic, representatives of the information technology industry have raised three questions: First, the lamppost detection is not only for the specific connection of the Bluetooth device in the vehicle, but also for all devices within the detection range, that is, covering all passengers and passers-by at the same time. The device that you have; since the computer system should be able to screen out the data of slow-moving objects such as pedestrians after analysis, it is inevitable to question whether the detectors installed on the lamp posts will collect unnecessary data in excess?

Second, although the agency claims that the MAC address will be deleted immediately after the pairing and operation are completed, the specific pairing and operation period and the time of deletion are still unclear.

For example, if detectors are densely placed on the same main road, will the computer system delete the data after the vehicle has passed two detection points, or wait for it to pass all detection points before deleting it?

If it is the latter, then the time the data stays in the computer system will inevitably increase.

Considering that the MAC address of the related device pairing is composed of two sets of characters, if the department only extracts the device of the citizen for analysis, the identity of the owner still has a chance to be identified, and the department has not explained whether the data will be They are used for law enforcement purposes, and there are no security measures to prevent them from leaking.

Third, in terms of detection technology, traditional radar, optical radar, thermal camera and other technologies can actually detect vehicle speed accurately, and its cost is higher or lower than that of Bluetooth detection, but the amount of personal data extracted is generally more than that of Bluetooth. The detection is low, so the agency should clearly explain the rationale for selecting Bluetooth detection.

Bluetooth detector.

(Photo of Transport Department)

Should refer to the smart lamppost review report

In all fairness, the application of Bluetooth detection in traffic flow analysis is by no means new. Foreign cities such as the United States, Australia, and Turkey have already implemented it. However, the current implementation of this technology in Hong Kong must be more difficult than other places.

During the legislative amendment turmoil two years ago, smart lampposts were one of the targets of those who opposed the government’s attacks. Some demonstrators were worried that the lamppost device could identify them, so they strongly advocated against the government to monitor citizens in the name of promoting technology. As a result, the Office of the Director of Data Technology had to suspend the start of the project at that time, and afterwards decided to remove the Bluetooth traffic detectors and other devices on the smart lampposts. The relevant task committee suggested to the government that similar plans should adopt more privacy-protecting technologies in the future. Before launching, it must pass third-party verification, open the public to read the evaluation report, and consult the Legislative Council, district councils and other relevant organizations.

Although the TD’s installation of detectors on existing lampposts is not part of the Smart Lamppost Project, the two are very similar in nature. The Department should refer to the recommendations of the Select Committee to promote public commentary work.

Judging from the publicly available district council documents and media reports, the Department has made selective responses after asking questions from district board members and newspapers in individual districts, and its attitude is still relatively passive.

This shows that the department must not take it for granted that the public will unconditionally support projects that they consider beneficial to society, let alone treat the opinions of the industry as faultfinding.

Smart city is about the quality of life of Hong Kong people

How can the government regain the light when the wisdom lamppost falls?

Smart lampposts cause privacy concerns. Smart government must build trust

Smart Lamppost Transport Department Smart City

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-03-26

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-08T16:44:04.214Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.