On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2018. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Chris ↗
In their words
Smart cities has become almost its own buzzword, its own industry. I run into people all the time with smart city in their title. I think the better term that I like is public spaces: how do we bring technology into public spaces, whether they be on a macro level like a city or into an arena or into an individual store.
The instinct of external companies, not even always companies, even government agencies, to not think about privacy: 'we're gonna take a picture of everyone's license plate as it comes in and that way we'll be able to track it forever.' We don't believe in that at Google. We believe that people have the right to privacy.
I genuinely loved the idea of using cellphones as the mechanism for conveying identity, so what we call smart tap. Some combination of physical device with my presence equals identity, but if I throw my device into the lake I resume my private persona. I think that's an ideal model.
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is Chris Lydle?
A Google retail and shopping executive based in Atlanta. On the TechTO stage (2:50) he said he worked on Google's retail shopping team heading up innovation, combining paid advertising, Maps and other Google products into retail solutions, and noted Google had just marked its 20th year. A Sixteen:Nine podcast (2016-10-19) introduced him as Google's global lead for digital signage and kiosks. His BigMarker speaker bio describes him as a Rutgers University graduate who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with more than two decades in online retail and digital media, including time on Google's Chrome and YouTube teams.
What is his current role?
Not verified here. The title in the header is dated to the October 2018 talk because no dated source after that confirms a current one. Undated conference bios conflict: BigMarker lists him as Global Lead of Local Shopping at Google, and a RestaurantSpaces 2019 speaker page gave Retail Innovation Lead. Nothing dated 2024 or later was found in three searches on 2026-10-20.
What did he say about smart cities and privacy?
That 'smart city' had become a buzzword and the better frame is public spaces, bringing technology into a city, an arena or a single store (3:36). On privacy he said outside companies and even government agencies pitch him ideas like photographing every face or licence plate to track people, and that Google does not believe in that because people have a right to privacy (24:52). His preferred model is a phone tap that conveys identity only for the moment the user chooses (29:25).
Has Chris Lydle spoken at TechTO?
Once. He was a panelist on the Commerce in the Smart City discussion at TechTO presents Retail Tomorrow in Toronto in October 2018, recorded as an episode of the Retail Tomorrow podcast and hosted by Kevin Coupe of MorningNewsBeat, alongside panelists from XRC Labs and Digital Main Street. The archive's ASR labelled him 'Chris Lytle'.