Security as a key factor for the smart city, citizens’ trust, and the use of technologies

Abstract

Smart cities are growing around the world, driven by technological innovations. With them come several opportunities and new threats to our security and privacy in this interconnected reality. This study investigates citizens’ perception of security and trust in technologies and how they affect the propensity to use them and, consequently, life in the smart city. Therefore, a survey was conducted (n = 601) using the PLS-SEM method to test the formulated hypotheses. The results obtained confirm that the proposed model proves to be consistent. The relationships between ‘trust and subjective security’ and ‘objective security and data privacy’ obtained stronger relationships, confirming the strong influence of the ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ barriers of the perception of security. Thus, to obtain and maintain users’ trust, the institutions behind the technologies need to be attentive to the opinion of their users and society to keep a good reputation and a positive perception of security. The users’ opinion is a crucial component of smart cities’ entire base, closely linked to technology, and presents as a fundamental concern for governments and entities that seek to implement concept solutions and applications.