## 6 Challenges and Opportunities
### Ethical and Privacy Considerations  
Although IoPVT-enabled safety monitoring systems consider various use cases to detect unsafe outdoor conditions at both the individual and community levels, these systems are increasingly integrated with advanced personal and environmental data acquisition devices, many of which are now commonplace in our daily lives. Sensors in public and semi-public spaces can collect detailed information about individual location, movement, and behavior data that can threaten personal freedoms or inadvertently perpetuate harmful discrimination if misused by bad actors. Therefore, balancing proactive security measures and the right to privacy regarding personal data is a critical challenge that requires sound policymaking, robust technical safeguards, and thoughtful public consultation [115]. One of the biggest questions in these systems is, what data should we collect, who owns those data, and can they be used? Although grainy data yield the most exact information, they also generate more privacy threats [116]. There should be clear lines drawn informing the use of permissible data by emergency services, health interventions, or infrastructure improvements but also lines drawn to ensure there is zero room for possible unauthorized or unethical use: no intrusive surveillance or commercial profit without public benefit. There are transparent data governance models that various communities can adopt, including specifying retention periods, anonymization standards, and data-sharing protocols that can create a sense of security for local organizations and help maintain trust in technology. The potential for surveillance overreach represents a significant ethical concern. Excessive monitoring could create a chilling effect on public behavior, discourage the use of public spaces, or enable discriminatory profiling. To mitigate these risks, we advocate for implementing strict purpose limitations on data collection, establishing independent oversight committees with diverse representation, and conducting regular privacy impact assessments with public disclosure of findings. Systems must be designed with \"privacy by default\" principles [117], collecting only what is necessary and automatically discarding nonessential data. Equally concerning are the equity implications of IoPVT deployment. Historical patterns suggest that beneficial technologies often reach affluent neighborhoods first, while low-income and marginalized communities experience significant delays despite often facing greater safety risks. This digital divide could exacerbate existing social inequalities if not explicitly addressed in deployment strategies. We recommend developing equity-focused deployment frameworks that prioritize underserved areas, establish minimum service levels across all neighborhoods regardless of socioeconomic status, and include community benefit agreements that ensure technology investments create tangible improvements for local residents. Implementation plans should include specific metrics for measuring equitable coverage and require corrective action when disparities are identified. Outdoor monitoring covers broad geographic spaces, complicating the mechanisms of individual consent, compared to more controlled spaces like hospitals or research laboratories [118]. Local authorities and system developers can improve public trust in a system by making it more transparent. Clear signage indicating areas under sensor surveillance, publicly available dashboards featuring aggregated data, and outreach efforts to inform citizens of what data are being collected and how could alleviate these concerns. Bringing local communities into the conversation, by holding intensive town hall meetings or setting up online town forums for example, also offers citizens an opportunity to raise concerns, suggest improvements, and feel a sense of co-ownership in how the system is deployed and evolves.