The elimination of the hangtags for resident parking using HotSpot has been fiasco. This decision was taken at a time where residents were not paying attention to local politics and should be completely repealed.

The biggest issue with the usage of HotSpot service is privacy. The handoff of our private data to an OFFSHORE company, in this case Arcadis, a Netherland business, represents a real threat to residents privacy. The city of Barrie claims that there is no risk to our data being misuse. The city of Barrie simply cannot be sure that the information of our green slip (ownership) will be destroyed. Isn't there not enough security breach happening all over the world already? NONE of these security breach were not supposed to happen, but it happened and keeps happening all over the world. Since when the city of Barrie need an OFFSHORE company to manage it’s residents data?

But the real question is the following. Why did the taxpayer had to support an initiative that COST MORE money to implement? Sending a bunch of hangtags when new residents move in is definitely cheaper than continuously paying an OFFSHORE company to manage our sensitive private information. I think it is legitimate to wonder WHO wanted this system and WHY. This is definitely not a request from the residents as this was implemented at a time where everyone was distracted by a worldwide event.

We demand that the hangtag system be reinstated.

Thank you