Security, privacy to become challenges for smart cities

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“Technology will be a means to a smart living. We will have smart security, landscaping, transportation, parking and workforce,” said Kumar whose company is equal partner in the GIFT-City project.

However, there were other experts at the meet who expressed concern about “smartness” of the technology and raised questions about the increased surveillance redefining privacy. “Security and Privacy will be biggest challenges of smart cities. This is a debatable issue,” said Srikant Chandrasekaran, Standards Senior Manager of IEEE, a New York-based global professional association for the advancement of technology.

Another speaker at the event, professor Vijayan K Asari from University of Dayton, USA, felt that smart cities needed “intelligent camera” that could analyse data and help in taking decisions. However, he felt that the presence of a network of cameras inside a smart city will not affect an individual’s privacy.

“In fact, the presence of cameras will ensure security and will help people living in smart cities have maximum productivity,” Asari added. The Inspector General of Gujarat police, Manoj Agarwal felt that the smart cities could be a target of cyber attacks.