The newly established Multi-functional Smart Lampposts Technical Advisory Ad Hoc Committee held its first meeting today (August 12).
The Government Chief Information Officer, who is also the Convenor of the Committee, Mr Victor Lam, chaired the meeting. A number of topics were discussed, including the work plan and modus operandi of the Committee. Members’ views and advice on the personal privacy protection and related information security technology issues relating to the operation of multi-functional smart lampposts were sought. The target is for the Committee to complete the work and come up with a report before the end of this year.
“Members of the Committee are drawn from industry experts and academics. Through their expert views in different technology and application fields and constructive advice, we hope to clarify facts and allay public concern.
“The Committee will also advise on the publicity and engagement strategy to facilitate public understanding over the equipment installed on smart lampposts and their functionalities and potential uses in an open and transparent manner in order to gain greater support from the community,” Mr Lam said.
The membership of the Committee is as follows:
Convenor
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Mr Victor Lam
Government Chief Information Officer
Members
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Mr Vincent Chan
Partner
Ernst & Young Advisory Services Limited
Dr K P Chow
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Mr Francis Fong
Honorary President
Hong Kong Information Technology Federation
Mr Stephen Ho
Honorary Chairman
Communications Association of Hong Kong
Professor Joseph Ng
Professor and Director of the Research Centre for Ubiquitous Computing, Department of Computer Science
Hong Kong Baptist University
Mr Ronald Pong
Chairman
IT Governance Committee
Smart City Consortium
Dr Lawrence Poon
General Manager
Hong Kong Productivity Council
Dr K F Tsang
Associate Professor, Department of Electronic Engineering
City University of Hong Kong
Mr Stephen Kai-yi Wong
Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data
Mr Wilson Wong
Chief Executive Officer
Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited
The Multi-functional Smart Lampposts pilot scheme is a three-year programme to promote smart city development in Hong Kong and support 5G mobile network implementation. Under the scheme, 400 smart lampposts are proposed to be installed in phases in four districts: Central/Admiralty, Causeway Bay/Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Tong/Kai Tak Development Area. Since the end of June, 50 smart lampposts have been installed on Sheung Yuet Road in Kowloon Bay, on Shing Kai Road in Kai Tak and in the Kwun Tong city centre to collect various types of real-time city data such as meteorological, air quality and traffic flow data. The data collected will be released as open data via data.gov.hk, facilitating the development of more innovative applications by the public.
The Government made it clear last month that three applications of the lampposts would not be activated for the time being in view of public concern over privacy. An expert committee will be set up as soon as possible to review the privacy protection of such applications in relation to technology, data handling and operational arrangements.
The applications on hold are the monitoring of illegal dumping at black spots with the aid of cameras by the Environmental Protection Department, the collection and analysis of average traffic speeds and travel times of specific road segments using Bluetooth traffic detectors, and assessment of road use by different types of vehicles enabled by cameras collecting car plate numbers by the Transport Department.
The discussion papers for the Committee are available on the Multi-functional Smart Lampposts thematic webpage at www.ogcio.gov.hk/en/our_work/strategies/initiatives/smart_lampposts/.
