Privacy And Security Implications Of Smart State Plan Implementation

Assume that an Australian State Government has reviewed the Singapore Government’s Smart Nation Plan and has decided to implement their own Smart State Plan. This will initially consist of a network of smart sensors and cameras at traffic lights, bus stops, rubbish bins, etc. in their CBD to monitor citizens behaviour and address street crime.

1. Discuss what you see as the personal and ethical implications for your privacy of the proposed Government’s Smart Sensor Network by looking at:

a. The types or categories of people affected by this proposal, 

b. What behavioural changes you might expect to see from normal citizens,

c. Would you expect to see changes in individual behaviours, such as choice of activities, changes in time schedules, etc.

The next part of the Government’s plan is to deploy a Smart WiFi Network which will consist of a series of sensor boxes to act as WiFi hotspots throughout the city. This would allow the introduction of a heterogeneous network where smart phones and other devices could seamless switch between mobile data and WiFi.

2. Discuss what you see as the personal and ethical implications for your privacy of the proposed Government’s Smart WiFi Network by looking at:

a. The types or categories of people affected by this proposal,

b. What behavioural changes you might expect to see from normal citizens using their mobile devices in the CBD,

c. Would you expect to see changes in individual behaviours, such as choice of activities, changes in time schedules, etc.

d. What are the implications for you If you had sensitive information on your mobile device that you did not want to share?

The Smart State Plan will also enrol all citizens with a Digital Identity to ensure that they can correctly be identified and access services provided by the state both electronically and physically.

3. If you were visiting the State Capital after the Smart State Plan has rolled out, do you think that the use of a digital identity would assist you to maintain your privacy while using your mobile phone or devices during your visit? Discuss the reasons for your answer.  

4. What steps do you think that you could take to ensure the security and privacy of your digital identity while operating your mobile device(s) in this environment? Discuss each step that you would take along with its advantages and disadvantages.   

Smart sensors and cameras at traffic lights

The approach to smart nation plan would include various steps. One of the biggest steps to be taken while approaching a smart nation plan is installation of cameras and smart sensors at the traffic lights (Zanella, Bui & Castellani, 2014). This would help the government as well as common people in various ways.

The installation of smart sensors and cameras would affect various categories of people. The categories are as follows

• Common people: the installation of smart sensors would detect the dustbins when they are full and about to overflow. Overflowing dustbins are harmful for common people and environment because it spreads various diseases and pollutes the environment (Neirotti, De Marco & Cagliano, 2014). The smart sensors would help to detect when the bin is full up to a definite level. The cleaning department receives a message that the bin needs to be cleared. The department sends workers to clean it. These sensors make it easy to track which place needs to be cleared (Neirotti, De Marco & Cagliano, 2014). Cameras also help to detect the places that need to be cleaned.
• Workers: the installation of sensors and cameras make the task of workers easy. They can detect which place is dirty and needs to be cleaned in no time (Khatoun & Zeadally, 2016). It also helps the supervisor of the workers to supervise them and assure that they are doing their work properly. In case they are not performing their tasks, well the supervisors can take strict action against them or complain the higher authority regarding their poor performance along with valid example.
• Traffic police: the sensors and cameras would help traffic police to manage traffic in a proper way. They can keep an eye on a wider area and assure that ever vehicle follows traffic rules (Gharaibeh, Salahuddin & Hussini, 2017). The cameras would help them to know if there is no traffic police in a particular area and the supervisor can send one to that place for maintaining smooth traffic. Smart sensors can detect if a place is crowded with a huge group of people. Grouping of people on roads occur during an accident or a nuisance that has been created. The traffic police are detected in such cases and necessary steps are taken.
• Criminals: criminals who take advantage of uncontrollable traffic can be caught very easily. The cameras installed at streetlights would help in detecting the physical appearances of a criminal and it makes the work of cops easier in catching the criminal. Along with this, the victim can also be benefited with this. The stolen things can be returned back to the owner without any investigation because the camera not only reveals the criminal but also the victim.

The installation of cameras and smart sensors would change the behavior of citizens largely. The behavioral changes are mentioned below

• The installation of cameras would help the people in behaving in a proper way in public (Álvarez, Duarte & AlRadwan, 2017). People would become more disciplined.
• The rate of crimes would decrease largely because the criminals can be caught very easily with the help of camera footages.
• Accidents can be decreased because the cameras would reveal the vehicle that caused the accident.
• People on the road and other public places would prevent throwing garbage on the road because the cameras can detect their faces and they would be caught easily (Eckhoff & Wagner, 2017). If caught they can be punished severely for polluting the public place and not throwing garbage in perfect place.

The installation of smart sensors and cameras at streetlights would change the behavior of the individual citizens. This behavior would be helpful for the citizens along with the city as a whole. The expected changes in behavior are mentioned below

• One of the most important behavioral changes expected in the individuals is the maintained traffic rules (Jennison, Clifford & Horency, 2017). The cameras would create a fear within the citizens that would make them follow traffic rules and avoid breaking them.
• The citizens would drive their vehicles with utmost care and maintaining proper speed in order to avoid accidents (Solanki, Katiyar & BhashkarSemwal et al., 2016). This would reduce the rate of road accidents largely.
• The workers are expected to perform their work attentively. This is because the cameras can detect if the workers are not doing their work properly. This might lead the higher authority to take strict action against them.  
• The fear of detecting through cameras would help the citizens to throw garbage in bins instead of littering the road.
• The installation of cameras would make the work easier for the department responsible to look after weather citizens are provided with proper facilities on the road. These facilities include dustbins, water taps, public toilets and many more (Jennison, Clifford & Horency, 2017). It would be easier to detect which place lacks a particular facility. In addition, steps can be taken to solve it.
• Without cameras, it would be tough for the higher authority to assure that the traffic police or workers are performing their task well (Solanki, Katiyar & BhashkarSemwal et al., 2016). The installation of cameras would detect if traffic police of a particular area were maintaining traffic properly.
• The installation of cameras and smart sensors would also reduce the chance of nuisance created by people on road (Jennison, Clifford & Horency, 2017). The fear of being caught and punished would prevent people from fighting on the road.

The second most important step to be taken for the initiation of smart city plan is installing Wi-Fi. This would help the people in many ways.

The installation of Wi-Fi would affect various categories of people. These categories are mentioned below

• Poor people: The first categories of people that are affected by the installation of Wi-Fi are the people who are financially poor people who cannot afford a broadband or an internet connection at their home (Wu, Luo & Liang, 2015). The people are affected in such a way that their children are provided the advantage of surfing net and obtaining extract academic knowledge from it with the help of Wi-Fi connection.
• Handicapped people: the handicapped people are not provided with numerous advantages that a common person enjoys. They have to stick to their habitat and cannot perform various activities on their own. Many organizations do not accept physically challenged people as an employee inspite of their qualification (Luque-Ayala & Marvin, 2015). This is because along with the employee they would need a helper who can help him with some tasks such as assisting him when he goes to the washroom or when an important file has to be transferred to another corner of the office and many more. These activities would be quite difficult for a physically challenged person to perform. The installation of Wi-Fi would give them the freedom to work while they are at home. They can apply for jobs that provide freelancing (Luque-Ayala & Marvin, 2015). The person would not need to worry regarding the net connection after a couple of months because the installed Wi-Fi would give him unlimited access to internet.
• Children: The Wi-Fi installation would help the children to gain more knowledge apart from their academic syllabus. Knowledge on sports, daily news, general knowledge and many more are not included in the academic syllabus of schools but it is important to gain knowledge regarding these (Kitchin, 2016). The access to internet would help children to have this knowledge.
• NGOs: It is difficult for NGOs to keep a track of people who need their help urgently. This is due to the physical distance between the NGO and the people. It is not always possible for the NGO workers to know where people need them (McAuley, Roux & Little, 2017). The continue activities in social media would help them to know the people who need their help irrespective of the physical distance. This would help the NGO to reach to the people who do not have their contact numbers or any other means to convey to them regarding their problems.

Every technology has brought about changes in behavior of the people. Some changes are good and some of them are bad. Wi-Fi has various changes in the behavior of people. These changes are mentioned below

• The most important change in people that can be seen is the excessive usage of social media. The people, who were not provided the advantage of unlimited access to internet, find it very attractive when they are provided with the same. People get too much involved in social media and share their personal activities through internet (Rajan, Black & Chinta, 2016). Especially youngsters involve themselves in social media platform that they do not understand the difference between the real world and the virtual world.
• The people, who run their business online, are affected largely. They can flourish their business with the help of Wi-Fi that would give them unlimited access to net (Anthopoulos, 2017). This would as a result help them to grow their number of customers and provide them better service as well.
• The people who refuse to open up with people and find it difficult to make friends are very frank in their virtual world with the help of Wi-Fi (Rajan, Black & Chinta, 2016). This behavioral change in them helps them to open up to people easily and help them to initiate conversation easily.
• Young children such as children who are below the age of 15 get the access to internet quite early. This brings about various changes in their behavior (Rajan, Black & Chinta, 2016). Some changes are good but some might create negative impact in their future life. The continuous access to internet and social media affects their mental as well as physical growth.
• The continuous access to internet with the help of Wi-Fi leads to depression and insomnia in people especially children (Anthopoulos, 2017). This leads to various behavioral problems in them.
• Children are allowed to use internet from a very young age, which affects their physical as well as mental growth (Anthopoulos, 2017). It changes the behavior of the children and makes them very moody and rude.

The implementation of Wi-Fi has various impacts on individual behavior of the citizens. These behavior changes are as follows

• Laziness: people tend to be lazy because they get everything at their doorstep, be it groceries or something luxurious (Rajan, Black & Chinta, 2016). People do not have to run to stores to buy their necessary stuffs.
• Entertainment: the implementation of Wi-Fi provides people unlimited entertainment. People do not need to wait for a particular time to watch their favorite show. They can watch it anytime and anywhere after it has been telecasted on television or in air. This is due to the unlimited access to Wi-Fi.
• Knowledge: the implementation of public Wi-Fi would help the people who like to gain knowledge from sources. They do not need to invest money in buying books in order to gain knowledge (Kitchin, 2016). They can just surf net or download pdfs of books and read directly from their device.
• Maps: the unlimited access of internet with the help of Wi-Fi would help the people of the city to travel wherever they want without fearing of losing the way. They can access the map online to ensure that they are heading towards their desired destination. If they head towards a wrong direction, they can rectify it by accessing to the map.

It is a common nature of human beings of getting attracted towards free services very easily. Free services are so attractive that more often people ignore the fact that while using the free services their individuality must not be lost. Suppose while using a public Wi-Fi people tend to update their OS or the applications installed in their phones (Anthopoulos, 2017). They do not remember that they might have some confidential data in their devices especially phone that they would to like to share. This should be remembered that any service, which is free, is free for a reason. Wi-Fi is an entry point through which hackers get into people’s network without even knowing about them. People can secure their data while using public Wi-Fi by various ways. The ways are as follows

• Update the operating system: updating the operating system not only provides new features to the device but also increases the security of the device. Updates are set in order to harden the OS used in it, prevent hackers from stealing the data and fixes vulnerabilities (Anthopoulos, 2017). It is very important to install the updates of operating system. This tip would help people to secure data from unauthorized users who take advantage of backdated OS to steal data.
• Using security tools: installing a firewall or a security tool is very important before connecting to a public Wi-Fi network. This is done because there are chances that the personal data might be exposed when a device is connected to a public network (Kitchin, 2016). There are chances that a worm might infect the device while it is propagating from one infected device to some another device. The activity might be intentional as well, a person sitting just nearby can send virus to the device and steal data. The security apps can help mitigating these risks.
• Avoiding financial transactions: it is unsafe to perform any kind of financial transactions by connecting the device to an unsafe public Wi-Fi network. In case a transaction is necessary, it should be done with the help of sites that keeps passwords secured (Anthopoulos, 2017). The best way to perform financial transaction is to switch to personal internet connection in order to prevent any mishaps that might occur during the process. A VPN can also be employed in order to encrypt the internet traffic.
• Use of two-step authentication: two-step verification helps in ensuring that people are using the site they think they are using. This verification method provides two different ways by which identity of the user can be provided. This process provides a security question such as what is the food that the user likes or someone who is close to the person (Kitchin, 2016). One time password is also a part of two-step verification.
• Using VPN: most number of risks occurred by using public Wi-Fi can be avoided by using a VPN (Anthopoulos, 2017). Various apps that can be installed in the mobile phones, which would provide a connection to a secured VPN server. As a result, the server would encrypt the traffic as it leaves the device.
• Disable Wi-Fi when done: the simplest tip to protect a device from being hacked by cyber criminals is to disable the Wi-Fi when the work is over. Most of the time people connect to public Wi-Fi and keep it connected until it gets out of range (Kitchin, 2016). When the public Wi-Fi is disable any attempt to inject unwanted malware into the device would fail. If a nearby scammer tries to perform, a drive-by-attacks would find that their attempts hit a wall, which does not have a data connection (Anthopoulos, 2017). This is the most effective action that can be followed in order to protect a device.

When I visit the State Capital after the Smart State Plan is implemented, I think the usage of Digital Identity would help me to keep my data secured to some extent in various ways. The ways are as follows.

• The main advantage of using digital identity that would help me the most is that, the digital identity would help me to blog and create a fake profile anonymously (Laurent, Denouël & Levallois-Barth, 2015). I would get the advantage of keeping my identity secret as well as explore numerous opportunities. For example while I create a blog, I would be needed to create a digital identity. Most websites do not validate weather the data I have provided is real or
• According to Banerjee, (2018) if I have a digital identity, I can stay active in social networking sites and post regarding various activities without fearing that my identity would be revealed.
• With the use of digital identity, I can access to products and services (Rhody, Rogers & Savonick, 2018). This access would not require me to present my valuable documents that could reveal my identity.

However, the use of digital identity can allow me to secure my personal data to some extent but it cannot be trusted blindly (Grassi, Nadeau & Richer, 2017). The use of two-step verification is more authentic and can secure data properly compared to the digital identity.

Digital identity helps securing data but the identity needs to be as well. The steps that can be followed to secure digital identity are as follows.

• A strong password should be kept in order to secure the digital identity. The passwords that can be easily identified should not be kept. A strong password can be created by making it of eight characters, using numbers instead of alphabets because numbers are difficult to predict (Torres, Verzeletti & Távora, 2016). Personal information should not be set as password such as anniversary date or name of children and many more. Same password should not be used for all the sites. Password for financial transactions and emails or other sites should not be same.
• According to Buccafurri, Fotia and Lax, (2015) afirewall or antivirus software should be installed in the device so that the digital identity is not stolen by the hackers.
• Updating the software of device is very important to keep the device free from the reach of hackers (Vivienne, 2016). Any apps or software that is installed in the device should be updated regularly. Updating adds new features to the app as well as improves security.

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