The Personal and Ethical Implications of the Australian Smart State Plan

CLOUD PRIVACY AND SECURITY
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Introduction:
This is the document that contains the personal and ethical implications of the Australian State
Government plan of implementing the Smart State plan. The Smart State Plan is derived from the study
of e Singapore Government’s Smart Nation Plan. This will initially consist of network of smart sensor and
cameras at traffic lights stops, bus stop, rubbish bin, etc. in their CBD to monitor citizen’s behaviour and
address street crime. This includes part of the Australian Government’s plan is to deploy a Smart Wi-Fi
Network system which will contain of a series of sensor boxes to act as Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the
city. This will allow the introduction of the heterogeneous networks where smart phone and other
devices can seamlessly switch between mobile data and Wi-Fi. 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.
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Task 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
The proposal of government regarding the Smart Sensor Networking includes every single
individual of the city. The smart sensor plan is implemented with the goal of gathering
information and to inspire associations in various departments to reveal intuitions that can be
utilised in optimizing city service delivery.
This smart sensor network includes the data sharing gateways and capabilities in analysing the
data and videos. In this system, various areas will be deployed with the CCTV cameras,
connectivity infrastructure and environmental sensor devices. This will further expand in the
form of video camera captures and analytic sharing through the use of the single common
platform (Poon, 2017).
There will be a number of people affected by this proposal both in a positive and negative way.
As we know there will be a number of people that will be in the area of surveillance. The CCTV
installation is both a good and bad thing. As this CCTV will capture everything, it will record the
bad things that happen in the city and the people responsible for it. Criminals can be identified
easily from the CCTV footage that will also play the role of the proof for the criminal charges
against the guilt. This whole will reduce the crime rate to the minimum possible and will bring
the good from society. But, on the other hand, this will also cause the privacy breach. People
will not have their personal space due to the smart sensor networks. The installation of
lamppost infrastructure will make everyone connected to the internet all the time, nothing in
the world will be left as device operated and this will make everyone gadget and technology
addicted. Moreover, the more people post, the more they reveal their privacy. Nothing will
remain private as this all take connectivity will give data hackers to easily steal data from
everyone (https://www.smartnation.sg/about/Smart-Nation, 2018).
b. What behavioural changes you might expect to see from normal citizens
Enormous changes will be seen in the citizens after the commencement of smart sensor city
plan. The people will always be in touch with the internet services as the sensors are going to
be connected to them. This smart sensor plan includes installation of various types of sensors
inside the houses to read the activities of the individuals living inside of the house. This will help
the government to understand the need of services of individuals and will help in the study of
individuals. This will change a person’s behaviours because they will find their privacy violated
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all the time. The habits of an individual are very personal behaviours and recording of those
habits will make the individual to feel irritated all the time and to retaliate against the plan. This
is also a good thing for some individuals like the individuals of age above 50 because these
individuals need care and sometimes medical health. The sensor will help people in
understanding the heartbeat, body heat and motion cycle of the individual. A change in any of
the above mentioned will help the medical services to be provided to the person on time, which
can be lifesaving.
The working and behaving of working people will also change as the planner of the system will
be able to zoom to the building and analyse their real-time energy use. Also, they will analyse
the level of noise and air pollution caused due to the infrastructure, which eventually causes
the organisations owning that infrastructure to change their energy consumption ways and this
will help maintain the resources and reducing the noise and air pollution (Noall, 2018).
c. Would you expect to see changes in individual behaviours, such as choice of activities,
changes in time schedules, etc.?
We will see the changes in individual behaviour, including the choice of activities, change in
time schedules, etc. the behaviour of any individual will change as when any individual will
smoke in any non-smoking zone, the sensors will be able to sense the smoke and will
automatically inform the authorities to work on it. As the individual will be able to access the
data of their day to day activities, the choice of their activities will change. The people having
less amount of work capability will be more concerned about their health and will start focusing
on their health. Since the activity charts of the employees will be accessible to the employer,
the person will not be able to make false reports of medical emergencies and other reasons.
There will also be a change in individual choice of person’s time schedule choices. People will
become more punctual as they will have the live updates of the traffic from the sensors
installed over the area; they will leave home on time and will reach their respective working
grounds on time. There will be changes in day to day habits of the individuals. People will have
access to their activity charts, health monitors and environmental sensors; this will change the
opinion of the people towards their habits. People will choose more health food, will exercise
daily to keep their health chart on the rise and will definitely include those habits that can
reduce the harmful effects on the environment.
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