Gartner: 4 Implications About The Internet of Things You May Not Realize

Information Age reported about four unexpected implications about the Internet of Things (ioT) according to Gartner, a firm that specializes in research for businesses and vendors globally that use technology. While the article focused upon the interests of businesses, the issues also apply to consumers. You may find these issues unexpected or surprising, too:

"2. By 2020, a black market exceeding $5 billion will exist to sell fake sensor and video data for enabling criminal activity and protecting personal privacy. The nature of IoT solutions, how they are deployed, and the types of data they generate and consume are giving rise to new security and privacy implications that organizations must begin to address. This is a rapidly escalating risk to the organization, bringing complexity unfamiliar to most IT and business leaders..."

For those unfamiliar with the Internet of Things, it includes autonomous devices outfitted with sensors that collect and transmit information about a wide range of activities. At least one employer installed (and later removed) ioT heat-sensitive and motion-sensor devices under its employees' desks. Several years ago, shipping companies started using ioT devices to track the physical movement of packages. Some law enforcement agencies use ioT devices for several applications, including gunshot monitoring, smart guns, body cameras, and wearables.

The Information Age article also reported:

"Uses of the ioT that were previously impractical will increasingly become practical... The ioT is relevant in virtually every industry, although not in every application... There will be no purely ioT applications. Rather, there will be many applications that leverage the ioT in some small or large aspect of their work."

Currently, consumers don't own the data collected by ioT devices in homes. When the information collected is incorrect or applied to the wrong persons, consumers need legal remedies to have that information revised, corrected, and/or deleted. If not, then consumers have no control over the sensitive personal information about them collected by ioT devices.

The data collected by many ioT applications will probably be included into corporate databases. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that while "big data" can be used to benefit under-served groups of consumers for education, credit, health care and employment, it can also be misused to target vulnerable consumers for fraud, higher prices, discrimination, and economic disparity. All of this highlights the need for legislation to keep pace.

What are your opinions of the implications of the Internet of Things? Is legislation keeping pace?