People often say that it won’t be long before the nature of personal activities and other information is recorded, managed, and utilized as a matter of course. That is likely to change the nature of relationships between people, and between people and organizations. Trust/2030 sets up three different societal structures depicting these relationships and explored new forms of trust that might emerge from them. The Centralized & Curated society depicts a scenario in which people put their trust in a large central organization and entrust their own important data to that organization.
In this scenario, people get to enjoy more and more convenient services facilitated by companies and the state utilizing personal information, and people have no problem with passing on data detailing their daily behavior to service providers in exchange for enhanced convenience. More cities and citizens will likely start doing this in places where they conduct their daily lives. However, as more sensors are located throughout the city to gather information and more personal data is collected in every situation, people will start to realize that data is being collected without permission and suspect it is being used in ways and places that they can’t see.
In such a society, how then do we build a relationship of trust that enables people to entrust their important data to large organizations that operate urban services?
Can citizens trust their city without knowing what personal behavior data is being provided and how it is being used? Rather than obtain large amounts of citizens’ data from the outset, Your Reliable City focuses on building citizen trust by gradually utilizing limited data and showing people the benefits of that process in obvious ways.
First, citizens receive location sensors, which they use to choose each piece of data they wish to disclose to the city for the service they wish to use. Unlike mobile phones that you always need to take with you, you can choose to leave the location sensor at home if you don’t want to disclose any information.
Your Reliable City initially collects limited data that is not personal to a specific individual, such as location and age. When carrying the location sensor, traffic lights and signs will change based on citizen data and citizens get to enjoy greater safety. Sensing a readily understandable benefit, such as safety, from the personal data you entrusted, will gradually encourage greater trust in the city.
As trust between citizens and city grows, the amount of information that citizens are prepared to provide to the city will also gradually increase. As more stores install location sensor receivers, cities will be able to receive more detailed location information, and, for example, ensure buses run just at the right time when you want to go to your usual bakery, making it increasingly convenient to move about the city. Citizens will then sense the benefits of providing data gradually change from safety to convenience.
As trust builds between citizens and city, robots will start to patrol Your Reliable City streets. Citizens will start to entrust the city with privacy-related information, such as names and personal relationships, because you will have fostered bonds of trust between the city and its citizens to make that possible. The robots will get to know all the citizens. They will use location sensor data to encourage communication among citizens and work to ensure good community relations. Robots might even be able to turn the city into a safer place by strengthening people-to-people connections.
What kind and pace of data provision or type of service offered would encourage citizens to put their trust in a large organization such as a city? If the use of citizen and city data can help increase citizens’ trust in their city, people would be able to enjoy deeper personal connections, and cities would become more convenient places to live in, ultimately changing our perceptions of our city and urban organization.
