City of Darwin’s Smart Technology Framework to Ensure Community Safety and Privacy

Darwin City Council has resolved to implement privacy and security best practice in the gathering, storage and analysis of data collected through its smart technology.

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said “The framework Council has agreed to establish will provide an overarching guide to the management of data gathered through our smart technologies and address data privacy, ethics and security.”

“Privacy and security are significant concerns for our community,” Lord Mayor continued “and Council aims to ensure the framework put in place meets our community’s expectations.”

CEO Scott Waters agrees “The privacy framework City of Darwin implements will not only comply with all applicable Federal and Territory laws, we also aim to achieve global best practice regarding privacy and the use of surveillance devices.”

“City of Darwin will be undertaking robust external Privacy Impact Assessments and the findings will be made public to ensure transparency and accountability,” said Mr Waters.

In May City of Darwin completed the largest rollout of smart technologies ever seen in Australia, including CCTV cameras, Wi-Fi and environmental sensors.  The $10M project was funded with $5M from the Federal Government and $2.5M from both the NT Government and City of Darwin.

The project was awarded the Australian Regional Smart City Award for 2019 in June.

The use of facial recognition technology is not part of the City of Darwin's #smartdarwin strategy.

The primary focus of City of Darwin's #smartdarwin strategy is to use innovative technology to enhance the lives of all those interacting with the city by planning for and delivering better services, improving community safety and enhancing the liveability and environmental sustainability of our city.

For more information please visit - https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/council/transforming-darwin/key-projects/switchingondarwin