Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced Friday that his office was suing TWC Product and Technology, the company which operates the Weather Channel’s smartphone app, which provides users with real-time weather information and forecasts. The City Attorney’s office alleged that TWC Product and Technology has been “covertly mining the private data of users and selling the information to third parties, including advertisers.”
The Center for Government Excellence (CGE) today released a new algorithm toolkit designed to help local government leaders remove bias from algorithm-based decision making. Complex algorithms, like those used by local governments, can learn from data, identify patterns, and make predictions with minimal human intervention.
A new study finds that the public is warming up to the use of biometric identification technology, but remains wary of tracking applications and is looking to government to set standards in that area.
States aren’t using data effectively. With access to massive caches of data, states could be true data-driven decision makers. However, many states have mixed success in using administrative data to drive decisions, according to a recent Pew Charitable Trusts report.
For the first time a majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Increased urbanization brings new demands for technology to make city life more pleasant, healthy, and efficient. New low-cost sensors and advanced data analytics, among other technologies, have given rise to smart cities across the United States. However, many cities are struggling with how to best select, deploy, and maintain smart city technologies. In its recent report, the Center for Data Innovation (CDI) said that national governments have an important role to play in accelerating and coordinating smart city development.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities (WWC) initiative added five new partner cities: Athens, Ga.; Chula Vista, Calif.; Colorado Springs; Gainesville, Fla.; and Palmdale, Calif. With the new additions WWC is now partnering with 95 cities across the country. The WWC initiative is working to improve the effectiveness of local governments by enhancing their use of data […]
The Sunlight Foundation released a report that found that cities use Federal data to make strategic decisions including identifying local issues and informing policy decisions. The majority of cities began using Federal data more than a decade ago and 43 percent plan to increase their use of Federal data in the future.
The Future of Privacy Forum said institutions must be established to govern the handling of individuals’ data in the era of smart cities.
Geographic information system software company Esri has pledged to donate $40,500 worth of data collection and sharing software to winners of the National Institute of Justice’s Research and Evaluation on Drugs and Crime grant program for combating opioid and heroin abuse.
In 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio launched Vision Zero to end traffic-related fatalities in the city. Three years into the initiative, the mayor’s office released a new report touting how data analytics has helped drop traffic accidents and fatalities to record lows.
