Data

Data generated by the Smart Citizen Kits and Stations can be stored, accessed, processed and analysed in various ways. This section will give a brief overview of the different components, and link to other sections in the documentation where needed.

By default, there are two possible locations to store the data generated by the Smart Citizen Kits or Stations: it can be sent over to the Data Platform and/or it can be stored on the onboard micro SD-card. Each location has different formats for data storage and data can be accessed in different ways. If you are looking for ways to work with data, check our Data tools page!

Philosophy

The Smart Citizen Platform is open for anyone to use, and the data in it is meant to be used by the people that generate it, for whatever purpose they want. It's a platform for experimentation, where anyone can start collecting environmental data and share it with the world. For this reason, we promote openness and accessibility, while giving total control to the person that has the device. Owners have the option to delete their data at any time, to restrict access to it, if it can pose a threat to their privacy; or to forward it to other platforms, in case they want to contribute with their data to other data aggregators. To support this, the following data policy settings are available:

1. Private data: data is open by default, but people can decide to restrict access to the data by opting-in. This can be particularly relevant on devices with a GPS, or indoor devices.
2. Precise location: the location precision on the map is limited to 5 digits by default. Anyone can opt-in to add gausian noise to the last 2 decimal places to effectively fuzz their location.
3. Data forwarding: an experimental feature, to allow forwarding data via MQTT. Only available for non-private devices and researchers.

Policy

Make sure to check the project's policy here