Abstract: In recent years, smart cities have emerged as a global phenomenon, with various forms appearing in different parts of the world. A smart city is defined as a metropolitan area that, through the application of modern technology, enables a higher quality of life for its inhabitants. Its primary objective is to enhance urban living by leveraging information technology in areas such as transport, security, energy, waste management, and even healthcare services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how smart cities operate and how they acquire data. The aim of the study is to explore the extent to which citizens understand the benefits of smart cities and the advantages of digital technologies. This research is based on a qualitative and descriptive methodology, focusing on the analysis of secondary data. The approach includes a review of relevant scientific and professional literature, European Union strategic documents, national development strategies, and publicly available reports related to smart city development. Key data sources include EU policy documents, academic articles, institutional reports, and verified online platforms. The results indicated that the combination of digital technologies with urban infrastructure has increased the dependence of smart cities on vast amounts of data collected from citizens, sensors, and other digital systems. The paper presents all the challenges and perspectives of smart city development, describing data security and privacy protection challenges, social challenges and digital inclusion, and future technologies in smart city development.
Keywords: smart cities, development, security
