Swiss smart cities promise efficiency – at the price of your data Swiss cities aim to become “smarter”, more efficient and citizen-friendly. But they increasingly rely on personal data, loosely regulated AI technologies and private companies. Who really controls urban systems, and what safeguards exist for citizens? Instant parking, public services at the click of a button, real-time traffic optimisation: Swiss cities are investing heavily in digital technologies to become more efficient and liveable. Zurich is widely seen as a model of urban innovation and one of the world’s most advanced smart citiesExternal link. “We want to be a sustainable city, a social city, and a less congested city,” says David Weber, head of Smart City Zurich. But smart technologies rely on the collection and analysis of large volumes of data, including personal information, often managed in ways that are not transparent to citizens. Many of these systems also depend on solutions developed by private providers, including major international tech companies, especially for cloud infrastructure. “Dependence on big tech companies is a reality in Zurich, as elsewhere. It’s something we are aware of and actively trying to reduce,” Weber says. Less vigilance in high-trust societies As digitalisation accelerates, it is becoming increasingly difficult for citizens to understand how much data is being collected about them and by whom. In democracies such as Switzerland, where trust in institutions is high, people tend to be less vigilant about data collection, according to Jasmin Dall’Agnola, a lecturer at the University of Zurich specialising in smart cities, surveillance and authoritarianism. “In Switzerland, we still have this naivety of thinking that in a democratic society our data will not be used against us,” she says. Dall’Agnola points out that data held by US tech companies can be accessed by US authorities under the US CLOUD