Data Protection in Smart Cities: Pre-Commercial Procurement as a Silver Bullet?

Globally, cities are adopting smart city services processing personal data at a rapidly increasing pace. As custodians of the public interest, public spaces and fundamental rights, cities should consider the need to ensure data protection, and enable democratic oversight and accountability in their procurement processes. Traditional public procurement rarely offers the leeway to substantively tackle this challenge. However, pre-commercial procurement, which allows public sector administrators to be closely involved in the service research and development stage, and to genuinely co-create with private partners, may prevent mismatches between private sector offerings and public sector needs in smart cities. This article contrasts data protection governance in the context of traditional and pre-commercial procurement of smart city services. Through case studies, opportunities and pitfalls for public administrations are distilled.