Our data between walls

*By Hermano Pinto

Cyber security, public safety, data privacy and even personal security. What does each have to do with the other? Faced with so many threats that make our routine in the digital environment difficult, it is difficult to identify the limit between security concepts. Invasion or fraud methods are constantly being improved and, therefore, several Brazilian cities have already taken advantage of an excellent technological resource to offer greater security to the population. They started to resort to what was established as the “digital wall”.

It is a system that brings together devices – software and hardware – for data collection, with monitoring cameras as the main instrument of connection to workers in a management center. Innovative solutions are available to citizens as allies of public security, and which allow for real-time and faster intervention in preventing and combating crime. Another application of the wall is the recording, for example, of date, time, license plates and vehicle geolocation data – very useful information in investigations or traffic observation. These are just some of the examples that we started discussing a few years ago when the first ideas about smart cities emerged.

Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things have been improving applications in monitoring systems. For example, predictions resulting from the collection of algorithms and communication between devices improve the digital wall, which can make city security more efficient with services that extend beyond crime. Among them, controlling the flow of unauthorized vehicles in regions or public bodies, analyzing compliance with targets by service providers – as in the case of waste and urban waste collection – and so on.

In some way, this all has to do with cybersecurity and data privacy, as it is possible to obtain users' personal data and their location through applications accessed on smartphones. Although collecting data and maintaining it anonymously does not interfere with data privacy, a strict policy for managing correlated data and the support of the judiciary and security bodies of municipal administrations is very necessary. Mainly in cases of non-compliance with rules or anti-social attitudes, so that possible aggressors or offenders against pre-established rules can be identified.

It is important that personal data is secure and all procedures comply with the laws, as tools that guarantee this protection make smart cities trustworthy to citizens. Therefore, public administrations must ensure that data control complies with regulations. There are data protection laws that give citizens the right to access their information, being able to correct it or delete it from the system.

Another very interesting resource for the success of everything we are dealing with here is coordination so that systems are integrated between cities in the same micro-region, with the aim of sharing information of common interest – with great attention to the issue of privacy. Integration helps city halls manage their cities and also plan shared investments from state and federal funds.

In Brazil we have some successful examples that implemented wall systems, from small and medium-sized ones such as Monteiro Lobato, Piedade, Araras, Botucatu and Limeira, in São Paulo; to the capital of Paraná, Curitiba. Large cities such as São Paulo (SmartSampa) and Rio de Janeiro (DataRIO) have large capacity systems and a multitude of services. However, given their size, they still operate restricted to some regions.

Digital walls, therefore, represent a principle of efficiency to offer the public a better quality of life and, depending on well-designed projects, favor more sustainable environments with social inclusion. This is how we see technological resources being used in favor of human beings, as it should be.

*Hermano Pinto is Director of the Technology and Infrastructure Portfolio at Informa Markets, responsible for Futurecom, the largest technology, telecommunications and digital transformation event in Latin America.

Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies