Sidewalk Labs, Google’s sister firm as part of Alphabet, has terminated a project to track mobility patterns in US city of Portland, Oregon.

The news comes after Google shelved a project to build a digital city in Toronto on a space of disused Waterfront land in May 2020.

Sidewalk claimed the Portland project has mostly been handled by Replica, a subsidiary of SideWalk Labs, which had become a separate company in September.

Sidewalk started trialling location data software in Portland in May 2019, which used non-identifiable mobile data to track people's movements through an urban area.

The mobile data was intended to help make policy decisions about issues such as: building bike lanes, repairing roads, and optimising bus routes.

In 2020, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said it was "inappropriate" for BigTech firms to design privacy policies for city neighbourhoods, regarding the Toronto project.

A Replica spokesperson told the BBC: "At Replica, we believe better insights should not come at the cost of personal privacy.”

They added: “We were not willing to compromise on our privacy principles, which frustrated our Portland Metro client and ultimately led to an early end to the project."

Metro, the Portland city agency who handled project, told the BBC: "After review of the draft data, Metro ended its relationship with Replica.”

“Metro did not pay Replica for any services. We wish Sidewalk Labs the best with its future work."

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