The Smart Nation is an initiative by the Government of Singapore to harness infocomm technologies, networks and big data to create tech-enabled solutions.
[6] Some areas of focus include enhancing public transport networks, enabling successful aging and ensuring a secure but open data marketplace.
The Smart Nation Sensor Platform (SNSP) tracks and analyses data related to housing, amenities and public infrastructure.
The ranking is based on the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and connected services, and which the nation came out tops in all four of the key areas measured—mobility, healthcare, public safety and productivity.
Several stall owners expressed their opinions on the efficiency of the system, stating that sometimes the cashless electronic transactions do not go through, causing delays in the queue of the business.
[20] With the gradual implementation of the Smart Nation initiatives, there are new concerns raised by security experts that the ubiquitous surveillance, with the proposed "Lamppost-as-a-Platform" (LaaP) with extensive facial recognition technology, could undermine individual privacy.
[21] There were also concerns that the expectation of mass surveillance by the government could also result in "self-surveillance, self-monitoring, self-censorship", and a general aversion to "improvise, innovate and take risks".