Cities Across The Country Are Installing "Free" Spying Smart City Kiosks

By MassPrivateI

Two years ago, I wrote an article warning NYC residents that City Bridge was installing spying Smart City Kiosks (SCK) throughout the city.

The SCKs came equipped with cameras, microphones and sensors that created the largest urban spying system in the country.

SCK’s collect lots of personal information, like a person’s MAC address, IP address, browser type and version and their destination IP address to name a few.

Who is behind SCKs?

Two years ago it was revealed that Google acquired Control Group, which is CityBridge’s parent corporation.

Control Group and Titan Outdoor are both behind an effort called LinkNYC, the Wi-Fi hotspots will offer charging stations for cell phones and free calls to anywhere in the US. (Source)

Why is the MSM silent about Google’s involvement with SCKs?

Google and Qualcomm have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to fuel SCKs’ expansion.

Qualcomm’s 410 SnapDragon processor and Vision Intelligence Platform are designed with one thing in mind, Smart City surveillance.

How have SCKs grown?

Fast forward two years and companies like CityPost are offering cities free SCKs.

“Among other terrific benefits, we are particularly thrilled to bring free Wi-Fi hotspots to downtown, as well as improved wayfinding, and enhanced safety and security,” LDP Executive Director Rebecca Matheny said in the release. (To learn more about spying kiosks click here & here.)

Why everyone should be concerned about free SCKs.

Louisville Downtown Partnership Executive Director Rebecca Matheny said,

There are a lot of things we’ve wanted to have in our downtown that this great product brings in one place. They are Wi-Fi hotspots that are camera-enabled, have great wayfinding, and are a terrific help identifying restaurants, directions and all kinds of metro resources. We hope to eventually have 100-150 within all of downtown, so we will be rolling them out fast and furious. (Source)

Cities across the country are installing free SCKs

Kiosk Industry.org has a created an updated list of places and things that SCKs are collecting.

August
- US Army
- Mecklenburg
- Northern Colorado
- Ontario
July
- Virgina , Newport News – Smart City Initiative
- San Diego Initiative for Next Generation Transportation Plan — Meeting Slides
- 16:9 Podcast with Gordon Feller & real potential
- Coral Gables, Florida two outdoor kiosks
- Austin TX Smart City Kiosks project
- Kansas City Comprehensive Smart City Partnership with Kansas City, Missouri. The City seeks to partner with a firm to provide a fully integrated suite of sensors, networks, and data and analytics platforms that will result in the City becoming the first true Smart City in the world. Due Date: Extended to August 7, 2pm.
May
- 5/11 — St. Louis — new due date of March 2019
- Orange County LED Smart Touch Displays – link
- West Hollywood questions — Questions
- West Hollywood — Smart City Public Safety Pilot Project (Cameras + Sensors). Up to 4 firms will be selected. April 10 dl. WH Bid
March
- Atlanta RFP — Separate Smart City request (3/2/2018)
- St. Louis V3 — St. Louis smart city request
- Detroit Smart City request
- Deadline for Charlotte extended. Charlotte-kiosks-12210601
Pittsburgh Convention Center Digital Signage Project — participants sign in Pittsburg-Addendum 1 – Pre-proposal sign in sheet _
Pittsburgh Convention Center Digital Signage Project — Pittsburgh-FINAL Signage Design RFP 12.28.2017
Charlotte-Digital-Information-Kiosks-12210600
New Jersey – Smart City – Kiosk_RFP_11.6.17
LA County digital signage [Samsung] LA-RFB-IS-18200469_Specifications-Final
Atlanta-Citizens-Info-17210076-1
MA-Transit-BD-18-1206-40000-42502-21371_Applied-Wayfinding-Due-Diligence-Posting-1

There are at least eight companies that are responsible for installing SCKs in cities across the country. They are, CIVIQ Smartscapes, IKE Smart City, Smart City Media, SmartLINK, Soofa , Verizon and LG-MRI.

SCKs are part of the Smart City surveillance network