The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 76 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
The ethics of smart cities and urban science
Open accessAbstract
Software-enabled technologies and urban big data have become essential to the functioning of cities. Consequently, urban operational governance and city services are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism that is the key mode of production for smart cities. At the heart of data-driven urbanism is a computational understanding of city systems that reduces urban life to logic and calculative rules and procedures, which is underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology. This rationality and epistemology are informed by and sustains urban science and urban informatics, which seek to make cities more knowable and controllable. This paper examines the forms, practices and ethics of smart cities and urban science, paying particular attention to: instrumental rationality and realist epistemology; privacy, datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance; and data uses, such as social sorting and anticipatory governance. It argues that smart city initiatives and urban science need to be re-cast in three ways: a re-orientation in how cities are conceived; a reconfiguring of the underlying epistemology to openly recognize the contingent and relational nature of urban systems, processes and science; and the adoption of ethical principles designed to realize benefits of smart cities and urban science while reducing pernicious effects. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The ethical impact of data science’.
Overview
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
Kitchin argues that smart cities and urban science are underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology that treats cities as knowable, controllable systems, generating ethical risks around privacy, dataveillance/geosurveillance, social sorting, and anticipatory governance. He calls for recasting cities as complex and relational, reconfiguring urban science’s epistemology, and adopting ethical principles to realize benefits while reducing pernicious effects.
Key findings
- Data-driven urbanism reduces urban life to calculative rules and procedures, while urban science/informatics sustain a computational understanding of cities that seeks to make them more knowable and controllable.
- Ethical concerns include intensified datafication and geosurveillance; predictive privacy harms from inferencing; re-identification of anonymized/pseudonymous data; obfuscation and reduced control; and notice/consent that is often empty or absent. Data uses such as social sorting and anticipatory governance can profile people and places, with predictive policing designating some as “precriminals.”
- The paper cites examples and figures: Rio’s operations centre is staffed by 400 professional workers and draws real-time data from 30 agencies; London’s Renew sensors on 200 bins captured identifiers from over four million devices in a single week in 2014; the UK has an estimated 8,300 ANPR cameras capturing 30 million number plates each day; New York and Chicago each have over 24,000 cameras; 25 of 50 iPhone apps and 21 of 50 Android apps transmitted location data to a third party; between a quarter and a third of smartphone apps lack a privacy policy; in 2014, 212 US data brokers were identified, only 92 allowed opt-outs, and of 58 mobile location tracking companies only 11 offered opt-outs; knowing the sexual orientation of just 20% of social media users can enable inference of all other users with high accuracy.
- Kitchin proposes three recasting moves: reorient how cities are conceived (fluid, open, complex, contingent, relational; complement analytics with phronesis and metis); reconfigure epistemology (data are never raw; analytics are socio-technical and political); and adopt ethical principles (notice/consent, transparency, duty of care, professional standards, city contracting and privacy impact assessments).
Methods
- Conceptual/ethical review and argument, not an empirical study; no dataset or sample is used.
- The paper examines the forms, practices, and ethics of smart cities and urban science, focusing on instrumental rationality and realist epistemology, privacy/datafication/dataveillance/geosurveillance, and data uses such as social sorting and anticipatory governance.
- The main analysis is a critical synthesis of literature and illustrative examples, culminating in three proposed dimensions for recasting smart cities and urban science.
Limitations
- The paper states no formal limitations section; it acknowledges that what constitutes harm is often difficult to define and that a sharing/gifting ethical model is currently a long way from being enacted.
- Evident from the text: it is a conceptual argument without empirical testing or systematic review, its examples are illustrative and drawn largely from UK/US/Rio contexts, and its proposed ethical remedies are not operationalized or evaluated.
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Claims the paper makes
54 Not checked yet · 45 Own interpretation · 9 No basis given
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Analysis and interpretation of CCTV footage is increasingly aided by facial, gait and ANPR using machine vision algorithms.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Indeed, one of the consequences of data-driven urbanism is that city systems and infrastructures are becoming much more tightly interlinked and integrated.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As these examples demonstrate, those companies and agencies who run these technologies possess a vast quantity of highly detailed spatial behaviour data from which lots of other insights can be inferred (such as mode of travel, activity and lifestyle).”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In other words, there has been a marked intensification of what has been termed 'dataficiation' [5]; that is, a radical expansion in the volume, range and granularity of the data being generated about people and places [4,6].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
What the sources say
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The result is a new form of highly responsive urban governance in which big data systems are prefiguring and setting the urban agenda and are influencing and controlling how city systems respond and perform.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“This transformation from slow and sampled data to fast and exhaustive data has been enabled by the roll-out of a raft of new networked, digital technologies embedded into the fabric of urban environments that underpin the drive to create smart cities.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“it should be noted that its approach is shaped by two more recent epistemological positions [1].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Increased datafication means that people are now subject to much greater levels of intensified scrutiny as more and more aspects of their daily lives are captured as data.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“These approaches also wilfully ignored the metaphysical aspects of human life and the role of politics, ideology, social structures, capital and culture in shaping urban relations, governance and development [27].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [27]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Data derived from smart city technologies and associated apps circulate within these data markets.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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- Probably not a substantial claim. 30
- It may state two separate claims as one. 42
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Consequently, urban operational governance and city services are becoming highly responsive to a form of data-driven urbanism that is the key mode of production for smart cities.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“As such, they promote an instrumental rationality that underpins the notion that cities can be steered and managed through a set of data levers and analytics and that urban issues can be solved through a range of technical solutions [8,23,24].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8]
- Not checked yetcites [23] source
- Not checked yetcites [24]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Smartphones continuously communicate their location to telecommunications providers, either through the cell masts they connect to, or by sending of GPS coordinates, or their connections to wifi hotspots.”
- Also stated in: § (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance · plain
“Likewise, smartphone apps can access and transfer such information and also share them to third parties.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance · plain
In the paper
“In general terms, privacy debates concern acceptable practices with regards to accessing and disclosing personal and sensitive information about a person [34].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (a) Datafication and privacy
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [34] source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Urban science/informatics, it is posited, offers the potential for urban knowledge that has greater breadth, depth, scale and timeliness, and is inherently longitudinal, in contrast with that derived from longer standing, more traditional urban studies [3,15].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Indeed, there is a strong recursive relationship between data-driven urbanism and urban science/informatics, with the former providing the raw material and applied domain and the latter providing fundamental ideas and the key tools to enact city analytics and datadriven decision-making.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
boostedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Moreover, these data can be accessed by the police and security forces through warrants or more surreptitiously, and can be shared with third party partners for commercial or governance purposes.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Consequently, they fail to recognize that cities are complex, multifaceted, contingent, relational systems, full of contestation and wicked problems that are not easily captured or steered, and that urban issues are often best solved through political/social solutions and citizen-centred deliberative democracy, rather than technocratic forms of governance [8,28].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8]
- Not checked yetcites [28]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“How privacy is understood both as an everyday and legal concept, however, varies between cultures and contexts.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (a) Datafication and privacy
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Such sensitive information can relate to a number of a personal facets and domains creating a number of inter-related privacy forms including [35,36]:”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (a) Datafication and privacy
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [35] source
- Not checked yetcites [36]
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The consequence of the emerging data deluge is that data-informed urbanism is increasingly being complemented and replaced by data-driven urbanism (the mode of production of smart cities) and this is changing how we know, plan and govern cities”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [7][8][9]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“As Solove [37] details, these forms of privacy can be threatened and breached through a number of what are normally understood as unacceptable practices, each of which produces a different form of harm (table 1).”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (a) Datafication and privacy
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [37] source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These approaches adopt a realist epistemology that supposes the existence of an external reality which operates independently of an observer and which can be objectively and accurately measured, tracked, statistically analysed, modelled and visualized to reveal the world as it actually is.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Smart city technologies, data-driven urbanism and urban science create a number of potential privacy harms for five reasons, each of which also raises significant challenges to existing approaches to protecting privacy (privacy laws and fair information practice principles).”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (a) Datafication and privacy
plainconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Privacy is a basic human right in many jurisdictions and is enshrined in national and supra-national laws.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“With respect to the latter, the Wall Street Journal in 2011 [49] details that 25 out 50 iPhone apps, and 21 of 50 Android apps transmitted location data to a third party other than the app developer [50].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [49]
- Not checked yetcites [50]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Both approaches are evident in urban science/informatics, with a preference on the latter.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“In other words, urban data can be unproblematically abstracted from the world in neutral, value-free and objective ways and are understood to be essential in nature; that is, fully representative of that which is being measured (they faithfully capture its essence and are independent of the measuring process) [22].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [22]
plain- Asserted: fails — The authors may not put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The authors may not put it forward as true. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This rationality and epistemology are informed by and sustains urban science and urban informatics, which seek to make cities more knowable and controllable.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“The first is a form of inductive empiricism in which it is argued that through data analytics urban big data can speak for themselves free of theory or human bias or framing.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [32]
plain- Asserted: fails — The authors may not put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The authors may not put it forward as true. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Software-enabled technologies and urban big data have become essential to the functioning of cities.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“At the heart of data-driven urbanism is a computational understanding of city systems that reduces urban life to logic and calculative rules and procedures, which is underpinned by an instrumental rationality and realist epistemology.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > Abstract
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“In London, Renew installed such sensors on 200 bins, capturing in a single week in 2014 identifiers from over four million devices and tracking these as they moved from bin to bin [46].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [46]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The result is the deepening of dataveillance and, in the case of the smart city, geosurveillance.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“There are an estimated 8300 ANPR cameras across the UK capturing 30 million number plates each day [45].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [45]
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A range of smart technologies has transformed geo-location tracking to a situation where the monitoring of location is pervasive, continuous, automatic and relatively cheap and it is relatively easy to construct travel profiles and histories.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For example, many cities are saturated with remote controllable digital CCTV cameras that can zoom, move and track individual pedestrians.”
- Also stated in: § (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance · plain
“In addition, large parts of the road network and the movement of vehicles are surveyed by traffic, red-light, congestion and toll cameras.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance · plain
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Several police forces in cities in the UK have rolled out CCTV facial recognition programmes [42,43], as have cities in the USA, including New York and Chicago (each with over 24 000 cameras) [44].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [42]
- Not checked yetcites [43]
- Not checked yetcites [44]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“While current urban science undoubtedly draws on positivistic ideas, notably that emanating within social physics which seeks to identify the social determinates and 'laws' of cities while largely ignoring the longer canon and critique [30,31]”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [30]
- Not checked yetcites [31]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Big data have fundamentally different properties to traditional 'small' datasets, being generated and processed in real time, exhaustive in scope and having fine resolution [1].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 1. Urban big data and smart cities
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The second is data-driven science that seeks to hold to the tenets of the scientific method, but seeks to generate hypotheses and insights 'born from the data' rather than 'born from the theory' [33, p. 613].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 2. Urban science/informatics
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [33]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“In 2014, Angwin [70] identified 212 data brokers operating in the USA that consolidated and traded data about people, only 92 of which allowed opt-outs”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [70]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The consequence is that individuals are no longer lost in the crowd, but rather they are being tracked and traced at different scales of spatial and temporal resolution, and are increasingly becoming open to geo-targeted profiling and social sorting.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (i) Datafication, dataveillance and geosurveillance
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Such data practices are now common, enabling the rapid growth of data brokers which capture, gather together and repackage data into privately held data infrastructures for rent (for one time use or use under licensing conditions) or re-sale, along with data analysis and profiles [1,69].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] source
- Not checked yetcites [69]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Predictive modelling using urban big data can generate inferences about an individual that are not directly encoded in a database but constitute what many would consider to be PII and which produce 'predictive privacy harms' [6,51].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (ii) Inferencing and predictive privacy harms
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [6]
- Not checked yetcites [51]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Moreover, there is no ability to opt out [64] other than to avoid the area, which is unreasonable and unrealistic.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [64]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The result is that it can be very difficult to know precisely the life of data and how they are used and transformed into new derived data [59].”
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
“Nor is it easy to understand the tangled set of roles (as data processors and controllers) and obligations between actors and where responsibilities and liabilities reside [51].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [59]
- Not checked yetcites [51]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These profiles can be used to socially sort and redline populations, selecting out certain categories to receive a preferential status and marginalizing and excluding others.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Nonetheless, the research being undertaken can have effects on those who are unwittingly participating by feeding back into services.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
plainconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Given the volume and diversity of these interactions, it is simply too onerous for individuals to police their privacy across dozens of entities, to weigh up the costs and benefits of agreeing to terms and conditions without knowing how the data might be used now and in the future, and to assess the cumulative and holistic effects of their data being merged with other datasets [60].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [60]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Individuals interact with many smart city technologies daily, each generating data about them.
In the paper
“Yet, as no data about sexuality has been directly collected, any entity making such inferences has 'no obligation under current privacy regimes to give notice to, or gather consent from its customers in the same way that direct collection protocols require' [6, p. 98].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (ii) Inferencing and predictive privacy harms
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [6]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Data are thus passed between synergistic and interoperable 'devices, platforms, services, applications and analytics engines' [50] and shared with third parties.”
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
“Moreover, across this maze-like assemblage they can be 'leaked, intercepted, transmitted, disclosed, dis/assembled across data streams, and repurposed' in ways that are difficult to track and untangle [50].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [50]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These impacts can be both positive and negative, but in both cases raise numerous questions about privacy and privacy harms.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In other cases, studies can ignore ethical procedures altogether arguing that data in the public domain (e.g.social media data or dating site profiles) are open to carte blanche analysis [65] or that they are entitled to experiment on their own systems without user consent [66].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [65]
- Not checked yetcites [66]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“effectively disenfranchising individuals of choice, control and the accountability of service providers.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Trading data and data services is a multi-billion dollar industry consisting of a diverse ecosystem of different types of data brokers ranging from very large consolidators to a range of specialist companies focused on particular markets or services.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“However, the code is persistent and distinguishable from others and recognizable on an on-going basis, meaning it can be tracked over time and space and used to create detailed individual profiles [51].”
- Also stated in: § (iii) Anonymization and re-identification · plain
“As such, it is no different from other persistent pseudonym identifiers, such as social security numbers, and in effect constitutes PII [54].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iii) Anonymization and re-identification
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [51]
- Not checked yetcites [54]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (iii) Anonymization and re-identification · plain
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the case of some smart city technologies, there is little mechanism to seek notice and consent, but also little choice in being surveilled.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“and 58 companies that were in the mobile location tracking business, only 11 of which offered opt-outs.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [70]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For example, tracking data that reveal a person regularly frequents gay bars, leading to the inference that the person is likely to be gay, would be considered by many as personal and sensitive data.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (ii) Inferencing and predictive privacy harms
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The emerging big data landscape is complex and fragmented.”
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
“Various smart city technologies are composed of multiple interacting systems run by a number of corporate and state actors rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil.Trans.R. Soc.A 374: [51,54,60].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [51]
- Not checked yetcites [54]
- Not checked yetcites [60]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control · plain
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For example, CCTV, ANPR and MAC address tracking all take place with no attempt at consent and often with little notification.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iv) Obfuscation and reduced control
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Similarly, urban science and informatics do provide novel and useful insights into cities, their citizens and systems.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There are clearly a number of ethical issues that arise from the creation and deployment of smart city technologies and accompanying urban science and informatics.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Reducing this complexity into models and then using the outcomes to drive urban management produces a reductionist and limiting understanding of cities and overly technocratic forms of governance.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“As such, urban science needs to openly acknowledge its contingencies, shortcomings and inherent politics and to recognize that it does not reflect the world as it actually is, but rather actively frames and produces the world [8].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [8]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: unclear — It is unclear whether it could be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, it needs to be recognized that smart city technologies do provide many benefits to city managers and citizens.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Technologies such as intelligent transport systems do make traffic flow more efficiently around a city”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“City managers need to consider the potential pernicious effects of the rollout of smart city technologies and that notice and consent are all but impossible in many cases and take a pro-active role in brokering privacy and security arrangements on behalf of citizens through its contracting procedures and parameters.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“For example, the Chicago police force produces both general area profiling to identify hotspots and guide patrols, and more specific profiling that identifies individuals within those hotspots [73].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [73]
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“This has led to concerns that a form of 'data determinism' is being deployed in which individuals are not simply profiled and judged on the basis of what they have done, but on a prediction of what they might do in the future [72].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [72]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“It achieves the latter using arrest records, phone records, social media and other data to construct the social networks of those arrested to identify who in their network is most likely to commit a crime in the future, designating them 'precriminals' and visiting them to let them know that they have been flagged in their system as a potential threat [73].”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (b) Data use, sharing and repurposing
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [73]
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“and smart phone apps do provide useful services to their users.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > 4. Recasting smart cities and urban science
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper relies on this without support.
Privacy is a basic human right in many jurisdictions and is enshrined in national and supra-national laws.
“Privacy-to selectively reveal oneself to the world-is considered a basic human right in many jurisdictions (particularly democratic states), enshrined in national and supra-national laws in various ways.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Notice and consent are treated as a foundational element of data and privacy protection.
“Notice and consent-considered the cornerstone of data and privacy protection-are significantly weakened within smart city technologies and in data/urban science becoming an empty exercise or being entirely absent.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Individuals interact with many smart city technologies daily, each generating data about them.
“Individuals interact with a number of smart city technologies on a daily basis, each of which is generating data about them.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Indeed, data-driven urbanism, “the mode of production of smart cities,” (Kitchin 2016) has changed how the domains of transport, mobility, energy, environment, waste, lighting, and so on can be managed and planned”
From Environmentally sustainable smart cities and their converging AI, IoT, and big data technologies and solutions: an integrated approach to an extensive literature review (2023) · cites this paper as Kitchin 2016
In the citing paper
“However, the 'gifting' remains compulsory with no alternatives and is also done without consent, and the benefits of 'sharing' data are most often stacked in favour of those capturing the data [81].”
From On the sustainability of smart and smarter cities in the era of big data: an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary literature review (2019) · cites this paper as [81]
In the citing paper
“In fact, privacy is considered a basic human right in many democratic states, enshrined in national and supra-national laws in various ways, and related debates concern acceptable practices as to accessing and disclosing personal and sensitive information about a person [81].”
From On the sustainability of smart and smarter cities in the era of big data: an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary literature review (2019) · cites this paper as [81]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > References
“43. Gardham M. 2015 Controversial face recognition software is being used by Police Scotland, the force confirms.”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > References
“Herald Scotland, 26 May 2011.”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > (iii) Anonymization and re-identification
“The term 'anonymous identifier', as used by some companies (e.g.Google [55]), is thus somewhat of an oxymoron”
§ The ethics of smart cities and urban science > References
“55. Narayanan A, Shmatikov V. 2010 Privacy and security: myths and fallacies of 'personally identifiable information'.”
Citations
Cites
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Harvey, D. (2009) · University of Georgia Press eBooks · doi:10.1353/book13205 · Cited by 3,106
The real-time city? Big data and smart urbanism
Kitchin, R. (2014) · GeoJournal · doi:10.1007/s10708-013-9516-8 · Cited by 2,794
Self-citationGrowth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities
Bettencourt, L. M. A., Lobo, J., Helbing, D., Kühnert, C., & West, G. B. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0610172104 · Cited by 2,699
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Splintering Urbanism: Networked Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition
Graham, S., & Marvin, S. (2001) · Durham Research Online (Durham University) · Cited by 1,775
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Unique in the Crowd: The privacy bounds of human mobility
de Montjoye, Y.-A., Hidalgo, C. A., Verleysen, M., & Blondel, V. D. (2013) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep01376 · Cited by 1,645
Smart cities: big data, civic hackers, and the quest for a new utopia
Townsend, A. M. (2014) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.51-3557 · Cited by 1,586
Forrester, J. W. (1969) · Cited by 1,571
The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures & Their Consequences
Kitchin, R. (2014) · doi:10.4135/9781473909472 · Cited by 1,469
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kitchin, R.
- Affiliations
- National University of Ireland, Maynooth (IE)
- Corresponding author
- Kitchin, Rob
- ORCID
- Kitchin, Rob
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2016-12-28
- Volume
- 374
- Issue
- 2083
- Pages
- 20160115
- ISSN
- 1364-503X (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2962
- PMC
- PMC5124065
- OpenAlex
- W2552464140
- Cited by
- 491
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 70 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 62 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 58 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 52 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 29.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Maynooth University ePrints and eTheses Archive (Maynooth University) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- ERC Advanced Investigator (ERC-2012-AdG 323636-SOFTCITY)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Smart Cities and Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Keywords
- smart cities, urban science, urban informatics, data-driven urbanism, instrumental rationality, privacy, datafication, dataveillance, social sorting, anticipatory governance, data ethics, urban big data
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-08, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-08 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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