in darmstadt germany interconnected sensors assess the air quality and send this information to a data center which analyzes air pollution and if necessary reports bad air quality . in order for these systems to work vast amounts of data on all citizens are required but who ensures that the data is safe and who has access to it different solutions exist. the data is essential for a smart city it provides the basis for designing intelligent applications for the city but what about data protection. to be clear in a smart city there is no protection from data being collected but on the other hand it's precisely this data that provides the basis for implementing and controlling the city system. as a result very careful and conscientious decisions need to be made regarding how the data is handled and. if the city controls this can be advantageous when it comes to data protection but most cities lack the technical expertise to process and analyze the data for this reason many cities cooperate with big tech companies they have the capacity and the algorithms needed to work with data analysis