Smart Cities

The concept of smart cities has been around for many years, yet only a little more than a decade ago, significant initiatives to speed up their development were launched, as the Internet of Things (IoT) technology started experiencing an unprecedented growth. The current chapter reflects on smart city use cases from the city of Helsinki, Barcelona, Bristol, the city of New York, and the city of Santander, which deploy emerging IoT technologies, and identifies best practices and potential areas for improvement. It recognizes the importance of strengthening citizens’ digital skills as enabler for innovation at large. Besides the necessity for a horizontal interoperable infrastructure across IoT enablers, the chapter argues that it is not only the “smart things” but the collected data’s value that requires recourses for management. In terms of data protection, the potential of privacy-enhancing tools, such as PrivacyApp, is discussed to stimulate citizens’ engagement and co-creation, while simultaneously respecting fundamental data subjects’ rights.