Privacy and the IoT Magnifying Glass
Since the advent of the Internet, people have been concerned about their privacy. Google maintains detailed information about what we search for. Websites often require significant personal information to gain access which is retained and reused. Internet service providers track all our website history and the IP address of every device we connect to. There are now commercially available software packages that with a simple installation process any businesses can reconstruct from 50% to 100% of an employees weekly work activity effortlessly. The big brother of the Internet is well established.
But in the end people could take solace in the fact that their physical world could be kept separate from their online world. Big brother did not know what you were doing physically. But with IoT the lines have blurred and will continue to blur between the physical and the online world.
Geo-spacial data is already the third biggest investment area in Big Data Analytics according to Gartner. People are already being tracked using the GPS data from their mobile phones. By 2022 the expectation set is that there will be more than 50 IoT devices in the average home. Wearables which are now a $60B market annually provide detailed activity about their wearer. With the right technology it is now possible to construct a detailed profile of a persons physical activity including location. Big brother is now watching the physical world.
Privacy in IoT has been charecterised as largely self regulated which has largely meant effectively no regulation. The challenge is that to reduce costs, technology providers in IoT have often sacrificed security. When the cost of a device needs to be maintained at less than $10 to $20 USD to make it economical there isn't much room to include effective security and privacy into the design. The recent DYDNS DDoS attack illustrated these weakness of IoT security in general.
The big question is do we care? For years researchers have talked about the Privacy Paradox. This is where people say they want privacy but often won't take simple action themselves to protect it. Some studies have estimated that the average person will offer up private information for only a few dollars in economic return. Ensuring privacy has a cost. Do we as a society need to make the investment? The question is still unclear. What is clear is that we are entering a world where our physical and online movements will come under the magnifying glass and eventually a microscope.
If you are interested in discussing further feel free to send me an email at info@theinternetofthings.expert and we can discuss my current study in this space.
