Testimony Regarding the Oversight of LinkNYC

The New York Civil Liberties Union submits the following testimony regarding the oversight of LinkNYC. LinkNYC has after nine years of operation still not disclosed a detailed list of the thirty sensors included in the kiosks nor how LinkNYC uses the personal information it collects in its ad-driven business model. And despite littering the streets with thousands of sensors, the project has also failed to deliver on its promise to improve New Yorkers’ access to the internet and close the digital divide and do not offer the speed and reliability of a broadband connection. Instead of centering community needs, privacy, transparency, and civil liberties protections as base-level requirements, they were unfortunately treated as an after-thought.