Privacy paranoia? Under what pretense should Canadians presume Google a good faith actor? Their business model has been to incrementally make the web their walled-garden fiefdom.
Why shouldn't we think that their Toronto project was anything less but an attempt to expand their iron grip into the physical world?
Ceding that much power, to a foreign entity no less, is a question of sovereignty.
Privacy is very important to some people, but I don't think it's a good argument against the project. Their collection and use of data would have been under great scrutiny. And if you don't like it, just don't move there. It was a small experiment not a takeover of the city.
AFAIK it wasn't going to be a condo-like development, with restricted access to residents-only, so anyone could walk within the Sidewalk area, and potentially be tracked, willingly or not.
Why shouldn't we think that their Toronto project was anything less but an attempt to expand their iron grip into the physical world?
Ceding that much power, to a foreign entity no less, is a question of sovereignty.