Hi, it’s Mariam Kiparoidze, an associate producer at Coda Story. If you subscribe to our Disinformation Matters newsletter, you might know me from there, but this is my first Authoritarian Tech newsletter to you.

And since we’re jumping into a new year, this week, I decided to ask tech experts for their predictions about authoritarian tech in 2020. Here’s what they said:

Cities will increasingly become smarter

“I think we will see ever more powerful or ever more ubiquitous smart city systems being installed around the world,” said Peter Bihr, a managing director of The Waving Cat.

The Waving Cat is a research and strategy company in Germany that explores how emerging technologies can have positive social impact.