Who buys and controls the CCTV? Back to contents 12 should they fail to provide decent wages, proper working conditions, and job security for those who clean the toilets. In other words, are these projects truly ‘smart’ if they continue to perpetuate decades of oppressive practices?6 Overarchingly, smart cities are built on the idea of greater data collection (including biometric data) and sharing, with significant implications for the exercise of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, the right to protest, the right to peaceful assembly, and the right to privacy. Smart cities also impact economic and social rights, particularly as ‘smart’ infrastructures now act as gatekeepers to critical sectors in everyday life, from immigration to availing government benefits and from healthcare to employment. The design, development, and deployment of smart cities involve complex systems of decision-making that is often done behind closed doors, with little to no involvement from the public or civil society. Smart cities are usually the product of public–private partnerships between city or national governments and companies that provide the infrastructure and ‘smart’ technology including cameras, monitors, algorithms, sensors, and so on.7 The vision for smart cities is promoted not just by the companies selling products alone, but also by management consulting giants aiming to paint a picture of more liveable, efficient cities in the future.8 Within the umbrella of smart cities, technology procurement can reveal a lot about how state actors organise their priorities around governance and public service delivery. Peering into the process of procurement also reveals how and why certain technologies make it to the stage of deployment and point to accountability mechanisms (or lack of) within this process.