Leiden University Student Repository

Čechová, Katarína (2022)

Smart City Technologies in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Bachelor thesis | Urban Studies (BA)

Smart city technologies are seen as the next step of urban evolution, but because of their development, goals, and sometimes limited regulations they raise privacy concerns. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, smart city technologies proved as useful when collecting relevant information to lower infection rates in cities. The academic literature analysis of this paper explores the notions of privacy in smart cities, sensitive information, what impacts people’s willingness to provide sensitive information, and technologies used during Covid-19. The primary research explores how smart city technologies were experienced and viewed by individuals from European countries (in addition to a number of individuals from the United Kingdom and India) in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how they felt about their privacy in this context. The results of primary research conducted for this paper show how context impacts people’s eagerness to share sensitive data, and how the purpose of...Show moreSmart city technologies are seen as the next step of urban evolution, but because of their development, goals, and sometimes limited regulations they raise privacy concerns. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic, smart city technologies proved as useful when collecting relevant information to lower infection rates in cities. The academic literature analysis of this paper explores the notions of privacy in smart cities, sensitive information, what impacts people’s willingness to provide sensitive information, and technologies used during Covid-19. The primary research explores how smart city technologies were experienced and viewed by individuals from European countries (in addition to a number of individuals from the United Kingdom and India) in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how they felt about their privacy in this context. The results of primary research conducted for this paper show how context impacts people’s eagerness to share sensitive data, and how the purpose of personal data collection can impact the use of technologies.Show less

Smart Cities, Privacy, Sensitive Information, Covid-19, Apps

Author

Čechová, Katarína

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Dr. Alistair Kefford

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en