In October 2017, Doctoroff appeared with Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reveal that Toronto would be the site of Sidewalk’s planned development. Its intent is to develop the right mix of technology that it can then license to cities around the world. “The genesis of the thinking for Sidewalk Labs came from Google’s founders getting excited thinking of ‘all the things you could do if someone would just give us a city and put us in charge,’” Toronto’s Globe and Mail reported Schmidt as saying, noting that “he joked he knew there were good reasons that doesn’t happen.” Then, just as quickly, the paper related Schmidt’s reaction when he first learned that Sidewalk, and by extension Alphabet, had secured this opportunity in Toronto: “Oh my God! We’ve been selected. Now, it’s our turn.”

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 724