Our lives are increasingly interwoven with technologies designed to keep track of our functions and behaviours. With devices like Fitbit, smart watches, and various smartphone applications (apps), we are able to monitor our exercise, travel routes, vital signs, calories, sleep patterns, caffeine and alcohol intake, conversations with family members, baby development and a lot more.
These records not only help us with self-monitoring (how many steps have I taken today?), but can be shared online through the internet to provide a bigger picture for us to compare and contrast ourselves at an individual, household, and societal level. The world has become an "internet of things" or IoT — the collective term for the network of physical devices, software, sensors, and connectivity that enables objects, people and organisations to collect, share, exchange and sell data. What’s different about these technologies is the speed with which they are spreading into our everyday lives almost unnoticed.
These include applications like washing machines you can control from your phone, lighting and blinds that adjust to the time of day, or fridges that send an alert when your milk runs out. Such is the pace of development, some overseas industry experts suggest the number of connected "smart" devices may grow from an estimated 8 billion in 2017 to potentially 50 billion by 2020.
On a larger scale, the IoT has the potential to boost business productivity and agricultural output, reduce energy needs, make transport systems more efficient and make us healthier. Many believe we are about to reach a tipping point that will lead to "smart everything". However, these technologies may be the most intimate we have ever used and we will be installing them throughout our living spaces and on ourselves. And while they may enhance our lifestyles, they are potentially allowing organisations to collect, share, exchange and sell personal data about ourselves and our behaviours 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
This then raises the question of whom or what should we entrust our private lives to on the IoT?
The potential of what can be done with such information is huge — some of it beneficial to the individual and some not.
Whilst there is a lot of research globally on technical aspects such as how to make platforms more compatible, there is little on how potential users feel and what their specific data privacy concerns are.
Often people have little idea of what happens to information they offer up, or what the potential is for it to be stored and used.I was part of a research project investigating how people trust potential IoT systems. The research, which included a survey of New Zealanders, suggests we are very worried about personal data disclosure.
About 92% of us are concerned or very concerned that information collected about us would be used for purposes other than what we agreed to, and 80% of us are particularly worried about organisations selling our personal data to third parties.
This then raises questions relating to our trust and acceptance of such technologies and who should oversee them. Only 10% of New Zealanders would currently trust commercial organisations to self-regulate information collected in our households. This drops to 6% for the over-55 age category. However, within a health context, about 60% of us would trust district health boards to regulate the data collected.
The IoT has the potential to impact every facet of how we live, work, interact and entertain ourselves. However, there are some big ethical issues for individuals, organisations and society to grapple with in relation to data collection and sharing. New Zealanders’ current perceptions of risk outweigh the potential benefits, although concerns may decrease with better understanding of new technologies and the value of their application.
Privacy and disclosure of personal information is related to our individual preferences — think of Facebook! If the potential of the IoT is to be fully realised, our individual concerns over privacy and security need to be addressed. The challenge for developers is how to gain our trust and help us see the benefits of their service whatever. However, with the invisible but all-pervading nature of the IoT, governments and policy-makers also need to ensure protocols for data management are in line with the pace of technological developments and address these from a regulatory and legal perspective.
- Tony Garry is a University of Otago Business School researcher and senior lecturer in the department of marketing.
