Blog Post: Data Privacy Community Workshops In Action Across Long Beach. Your Data, Your Privacy Matters!
Release Date: 2024-10-08
Data privacy, as written in the City of Long Beach’s Data Privacy Guidelines are, “the practices taken to govern the collection, protection, and sharing of personal and confidential information.”
In September 2024, our Smart Cities team conducted a series of data privacy community workshops aimed at educating the public of the tools the City has created to promote their digital rights and secure their data privacy. Community participants developed skills to protect their personal information online and learned about the City’s approach to ensuring their personal privacy is a top priority.
In these recent data privacy community workshops, over 50 residents learned about:
- The rights granted to them by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and how to exercise those rights.
- How we deploy technologies and use the data it collects to provide or enhance a product or service.
- The importance of protecting their personal information in the digital world.
Our goal with these workshops was to begin a dialogue and learn more about the challenges residents face when it comes to protecting their data. This is important because in order to shape a meaningful and collective digital future, the public must have up to date, transparent, and accessible information to better understand the role of the technology and data in our every day lives.
The privacy and responsible stewardship of community data is our commitment.
 |
 |
| Omar Moncayo, Data Privacy Analyst speaking to residents at Houghton Park at the September 17, 2024, Data Privacy Community Workshop. | Residents holding information at Houghton Park on the rights of the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA). |
What is the City Doing to Advance Digital Rights?
According to the United Nations, digital rights are human rights. “Digital technologies provide new means to exercise human rights, but they are too often used to violate human rights. Data protection and privacy, digital identity, the use of surveillance technologies, online violence and harassment, are of particular concern.”
The inaugural data privacy community workshops informed Long Beach residents of the digital tools the City has created to boost transparency around the types of technology the City deploys and the data those systems collect. We created space for dialogue where residents can understand the role they play in the implementation of technology and data usage in the City.
We wanted to make these workshops fun, so we created a trivia game to demystify some common misconceptions regarding City- owned technology and created a card game to educate workshop participants on the rights the CCPA grants them. Additionally, each day featured a different Privacy Expert to elevate the importance of safeguarding your online information as well as share the work they're doing to advance digital rights and data privacy. On Tuesday, we welcomed the Chief Data Officer for the City of Los Angeles, Eva Pereira, Wednesday featured leading researcher and professor from CSULB, Gwen Shaffer PhD., and Thursday, we hosted privacy lawyer Stacey Garrett, Esq. from law firm Keesal, Young & Logan.
The workshops highlighted the City’s parallel efforts to promote residents’ digital rights which include creation of a privacy policy to ensure safe and ethical procurement of technologies in the City and our enhanced Digital Rights Platform which provides transparent information about the data collected by smart city technologies.
Meeting Residents Where They’re At
We believe that meeting community residents where they live, work, and play is important to advance equity, accessibility, and transparency. By reaching people in familiar spaces, we also foster trust and show commitment to transparency, in hopes of making residents feel more supported in their privacy rights and personal data. Our team developed a strategic communications and outreach plan to reach as many residents of Long Beach as possible.
We promoted the workshops Citywide through our official social media channels in English, Spanish, Khmer, and Tagalog. We reached out to key influencers, promoted the workshops on a variety of external newsletters, distributed flyers in various languages to key public spaces, and printed large posters that were displayed at City Hall and workshop locations. Additionally, we tabled at Silverado Park, Veteran’s Park, Houghton Park, and the Long Beach Senior Center to encourage residents to sign up for the workshops. We made announcements after senior fitness classes and food distribution events. Lastly, to ensure and encourage attendance we made calls to residents who had signed up via the registration form and sent email reminders a week before the event and the day before the event.
These efforts help us connect with residents and learn more about their needs and challenges. We plan to implement these practices in all upcoming public facing outreach and engagement.
 |
 |
| Omar Moncayo, Data Privacy Analyst speaking to residents at the Digital Inclusion Stakeholder Meeting. | Omar Moncayo, Data Privacy Analyst, talking to seniors at the Long Beach Senior Center. |
 |
 |
| Data Privacy Community Workshop flyers posted at Houghton Park. | Omar Moncayo, Data Privacy Analyst and Lesly Figueroa, Smart Cities Communications Fellow distributing flyers at the Digital Inclusion Stakeholder Meeting. |
What Did We Learn from Residents
We learned that residents want to learn about tips to protect their personal data, participate in digital literacy courses to build digital device and data privacy skills, and further engage with our efforts through more targeted workshops at locations they spend most of their time at like community centers and the Long Beach Senior Center. Additionally, we learned the need to diversify our outreach strategy and attract more audiences who value the importance of data privacy and the role of emerging technologies in the City.
The post-workshop surveys revealed a successful delivery of information in creative and meaningful methods ensuring hard to digest information is accessible to the public. A few comments from residents about the workshops:
“I liked the format, made abstract concepts accessible”
“Informative regarding LB’s intent to use smart digital methods to move forward into the 21st century”
What’s Next for Data Privacy in the City
It’s clear that our community members want more workshops like this, so we plan to host more in the future! To stay up to date with when and where these will take place, subscribe to our newsletter for workshops invitations.
We continue adding the newest smart technologies deployed in the City to our Digital Rights Platform such as the noise detector technology to enhance public safety in City-operated facilities. Our work to develop a ‘Data Privacy Policy’ is in progress and approaching the final stages of review. The policy will mandate data privacy reviews during the acquisition and procurement process of technology in the City. By implementing a process to quickly evaluate the privacy risks a new technology may pose to residents, we can make informed decisions on the appropriate privacy products and parameters for usage, access, and training needed for a safe and responsible implementation. Departments will have to engage with Technology and Innovation Department (TID) to conduct a ‘privacy evaluation’ before purchasing any new technology.
For more information on data privacy contact Omar Moncayo, Data Privacy Analyst, omar.moncayo@longbeah.gov
Check out these resources:
Digitial Rights Platform Factsheet (English, Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog)
