State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Seattle Pushes Forward as Data Privacy Leader

Government Technology: As the collection of data by city governments becomes increasingly comprehensive and complex, municipalities have begun to create privacy policies aimed at keeping citizen info safe. Among those undertaking these efforts, Seattle is often recognized as the leader.

Dating back to 2014, Seattle’s government has worked closely with its community to strike a balance between creating smart city initiatives and other work that collects data about what’s happening on its streets, and ensuring that residents don’t feel — for lack of a more elegant term — spied on. To this end, the local government there has taken many steps that other cities are yet to explore. Seattle is the rare city with a chief privacy officer, a set of guiding privacy principals adopted by its city council, a privacy advisory committee made up of both citizens and public servants, and a section of its website that ties it all together.

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