The chair on Data Protection On The Ground organized a roundtable discussion on personal data protection in smart cities in June 2019. In smart city projects, a variety of interests come into play: the interests of citizens, authorities, technology vendors, regulators, researchers and lawmakers. These different stakeholders will also have different perspectives on what should happen with the data that are collected and processed in smart city projects, especially when those data are personal. In this roundtable session, smart city data protection officers, privacy academics and representatives of civil society and supervisory authorities discussed the main challenges and possible solutions to data protection in smart cities.
The most discussed topics during the roundtable were: a) The roles and responsibilities of data controllers and processors; b) Skills and resources of data controllers, public authorities and data subjects; c) Legal bases for the processing of personal data; d) Power imbalances between different actors; e) Role of public authorities; f) Protective measures; g) Data re-use and sharing.
Recommendations for different relevant actors in the field of smart cities are provided at the end of the report, alongside directions for further research.
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