AT5 News, 12 January 2015: 'Mountain of meta-data should make Amsterdam 'smartest city in the world''

“Amsterdam wants to become the smartest city in the world, through the use of meta-data. Digital traces we leave behind when we check in for the metro with our ov-chipcard, for example, or buy tickets online for a museum.

With the project, the municipality aims to Amsterdam Smart City Using all these digital traces to make Amsterdammers smarter.

'You leave signals all day long when you walk down the street with your phone,' says Ger Baron of Amsterdam Smart City. 'And all these signals can be used for lots of smart applications in the city. A great example is a project that is currently playing out on IJburg. It's called Traffic Link. With this app, IJburg residents can see the ideal time for them to leave home for work or school'.

Privacy
Yes, this sounds wonderful, of course. But doesn't using this data have all sorts of implications for your privacy? Vincent Böhre, Privacy First, acknowledges that everyone is constantly leaving traces. 'It may be that data from those traces will be used. But then you have to have given prior permission for that.'"

Click HERE for the whole item on this topic in the AT5 journal of 12 January 2015.