I keep seeing a meme that claims that smart cities, phones, etc stands for “Surveillance, Monitoring, Analysis, etc, etc …”

Smart does not stand for that. It is not an acronym.

Smart cities simply means making resources easier and cheaper to access, and travel, communication and workflow more efficient.

There will be real issues in how this is managed. There are risks to privacy and there may be barriers, as in additional costs, to the freedom of movement we now take for granted. These will be important to recognise and address. But simply making stuff up, as in “SMART stands for…” does not help, and reduces the credibility of those who raise genuine concerns.