Cybersecurity expert has questions about Toronto Pearson's new AI partnership
CTV
An Ontario cybersecurity expert is asking a number of questions about Toronto Pearson International Airport's newest artificial intelligence partnership.
What data is it capturing? Where is it being stored? Who has access to it? Are we as travellers being properly protected?
Those are just a few of the questions one Ontario cybersecurity expert has following an announcement by Toronto Pearson International Airport about its newest artificial intelligence partnership.
“Lots of detail about increasing on-time performance and raising transparency with passengers, but really not a whole lot about how our privacy is going to be protected along the way. And these are questions that need to be answered,” Carmi Levy told CTV News Toronto.
On Tuesday, Canada’s busiest airport announced it had partnered with Swiss aviation software company Assaia to deploy its ApronAI technology.
The technology, which the Greater Toronto Airports Authority said uses AI “to track every aspect of aircraft turnaround performance,” will be deployed to all of Pearson’s 106 gates.
While officials said the data itself will be used to highlight and address inefficiencies, and provide accurate estimates of timeliness to increase gate availability – both of which are air travel insights that Pearson can benefit from following a challenging summer and winter travel season – the deployment of such a technology presents an ethical and operational balancing act, according to Levy.
