Privacy and security concerns shaping smart city adoption: Evidence from Qatar

Abstract

Information security remains a significant concern for the adoption of smart cities (SCs) worldwide, particularly in relation to the development and implementation of digital ecosystems. SCs entail the interconnectedness of networks and systems that collect and process huge volumes of diverse data. This study analyzes the impact of data privacy and data security issues on the citizens’ willingness to adopt smart city environments. A critical review of the existing literature was conducted regarding the relationship between data privacy and security concerns and the adoption of the smart city ecosystem. The data collected from two sample groups, experts and citizens, were analyzed using statistical techniques, including independent samples t-tests and correlation analysis. The findings indicate that citizens and experts had significantly different perceptions of the characteristics of SCs. Still, both groups exhibited a strong positive correlation between key adoption variables and citizens’ readiness to accept SCs. Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed to increase citizens’ acceptance of SCs.

Keywords

Data privacy / Smart city / Smart governance / Concerns / Readiness

Acknowledgments

The authors of this article would like to express their deep gratitude to their institution, Brunel University London. The present research complies with the open-access policy of Brunel University London. This research would not be possible without the support and guidance received from the University.

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: All authors

Formal analysis: Dana Ahmad Al-Ali

Investigation: Dana Ahmad Al-Ali

Methodology: All authors

Supervision: Nadarajah Manivannan, Yanmeng Xu

Writing-original draft: Dana Ahmad Al-Ali

Writing-review & editing: All authors

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. All procedures were performed in compliance with relevant laws and institutional guidelines and have been approved by the appropriate institutional committee: Research Ethics Committee of Brunel University London (Reference number: 38065-LR-Jul/2022-40874-2; date of approval: August 4, 2022).

Consent for publication

Informed consent for publication of anonymized participant data was obtained from all participants.

Availability of data

The research data are available at https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Untitled_It_b_Data_Privacy_and_Security_ Concerns_and_Readiness_to_Accept_Smart_Cities_Empirical_Evidence_from_Qatar_b_em/25764780 (accessed on January 22, 2025).

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