Gutierrez asks about AI Smart Select vendor and data privacy

And then my next question, and I'm sure the chair will...

Kind of expand a little bit more, but I did I do have the app.

I'm living in Bushwick a frequent trash service requester On the I noticed that there's like the AI smart select.

Sorry this chair is malfunctioning.

Um, I

Can you share a little bit about, and I think it's helpful, I think it's been helpful because I think for a long time, especially if you're putting in a complaint about trash, there was a lot of miscommunication about what is illegal dumping, what is just a dirty sidewalk versus a dirty street.

Can you share if that feature or if the AI smart select tool, was that designed in-house or did you all contract with a vendor and whether or not

Yeah, whether you use the vendor.

And what information does this tool capture?

Because I think while you're putting it in, obviously it's prompting you to put your address, your information.

How much of that is the tool capturing and how much of your personal data is it holding on to?

And is it a different data privacy agreement than the standard 311 app?

Thank you.

I appreciate the user feedback in that situation.

I take your kind of the different points in kind of an order, if I can, if I can remember it.

So first off, I'm glad you're using Smart Select.

I don't think it gives me a choice.

I want to be honest.

If you go to the app, I think it's at the top.

It's at the top, yes.

So a little bit of context behind that.

I feel like we have a tremendous CX team at 311, a customer experience team.

And this is one of the things where over time, they're constantly looking at what more do we need to do?

What else can we be doing?

So we know a lot of people come to the mobile app.

We've seen it grow over the years, obviously the growth of smartphones.

But people like to submit things in different ways.

So we were giving them one.

What the Smart Select does is give them another way and actually gives them three other ways, right?

So if you go to it, pull it up, you can take a picture.

You can use a picture.

You can upload a picture.

You can take a picture.

And now you can actually type in some text about a condition you're seeing, you're near, you can observe.

The smart select will then determine what it is.

You confirm and then you submit it.

So now you don't have to go through the step of having to fill out a form because it's doing it for you.

The work to do that was done by a combination of the OTI organization and its contracted MWBE vendor.

Do you know the name of the vendor?

I don't.

I know we call it an MWB vendor, so I don't know the name offhand.

Oh, that's the most generic.

Okay, we'll follow up.

I'm sure I shall get that.

Okay.

And that went into effect last year.

The text was just an enhancement this year.

Okay.

But the picture version was last year.

And then very much falls under the same purview of privacy.

We are very serious about privacy at 311.

I personally believe it's what drives the public trust in 311 and has over 20 plus years.

That is very important to us.

So any tool that we use falls under that same purview with OTI and 311's privacy policy.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.