POTs and PANs

Broadband for All

Main menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About CCG
  • Engineering
  • Implementation
  • Job Postings
  • Regulatory
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Strategy and Planning

Search

Tag Archives: IoT data

June 21, 2017

Who Owns IoT Data?

The press has been full of discussion over the last month with numerous articles about Internet privacy. Recent moves by the FCC and Congress have opened the doors for ISPs to track and monetize customer data.

But there is another, possibly bigger source of data that nobody is talking about. I ask the question today about who owns data from the Internet of Things? Our homes are starting to fill up with devices that have the ability to monitor our behavior in numerous ways. Currently there are no specific laws governing the collection and use of this data.

For example, there are now many kinds of devices that listen to conversations in our homes – the one thing that most people probably consider as private and personal. A few years ago we learned that Samsung TVs were capable of hearing all conversations in the room. It was reported at Christmas time that there are now dolls that listen to everything said and send the conversations to the cloud. Millions have invited talking personal assistants into their homes and business in the form of Amazon Echo or the numerous other devices hitting the markets. And many more millions now use Apple’s Siri when driving their cars. And those are just the devices that listen to us today. It’s expected that within the next few years that many electronic devices will be voice activated and monitored in the cloud.

But there are numerous other kinds of devices that can spy on us. Security systems can track every movement of people within a home, and scientists say that understanding people’s movements says a lot about them – including things we might not even understand. When motion sensors get coupled with video cameras the security concerns get even scarier.

But monitoring our IoT can be even simpler than that and seem somewhat innocuous. Numerous manufacturers of appliances plan to include IoT monitoring capability so that they can understand how we use their products. You wouldn’t think that there is much to be worried about if your new blender tells the factory exactly how and when you use it. But if these companies decide to monetize the data they are collecting they could sell it to somebody that collects and collates data from all of our devices – and that aggregator could paint an incredibly detailed picture of our lives.

All of these devices will report back to the cloud using either WiFi or cellular connections, and that means the IoT data will always flow through an ISP on the way to the cloud. One would hope that much of this data will be encrypted, but if not then our ISPs might be the ones using big data analytics to paint a detailed picture of each of us.

From a legal perspective there is no clear answer about who owns this kind of data. Data from IoT devices are not specifically covered under current intellectual property laws. And that’s what makes this all murky. We provide personal data to outsiders in different ways, which might eventually make a legal difference. For example, any time we voluntarily give somebody access to data then they gain a right to use it. We all do this all of the time when we sign up for social media platforms or smartphone apps.

But the situation is probably different when we didn’t specifically grant any approval to use our data. I don’t expect that I am going to be required to sign a terms of service to use a new TV, a smart washer or a blender. In that case there can be a stronger argument made that such data belongs to the customer unless they grant specific approval to use it.

Things get even messier when we start looking at metadata. This is composite data that combines data from multiple people into a jumbled pile. But burying personal data inside metadata does not mean that people can’t be identified from the pile of data – it just means that it’s a bit harder to do.

At some point this is going to have to be addressed legally. Right now, without specific laws controlling this kind of data it’s a no man’s land. It’s hard to think that a court today would know what to do with a complaint that a vendor somehow violated us by using our data.

Share this:

  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
  • Posted in Technology, The Industry
  • Tagged IoT, IoT data, metadata, privacy
  • Leave a comment

Post navigation

Doug Dawson, President

Contact Doug Dawson

(202) 255-7689
blackbean2@ccgcomm.com

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,006 other subscribers

Categories

  • Current News
  • Guest Blog
  • Improving Your Business
  • Meet CCG
  • Regulation – What is it Good For?
  • Regulatory Alerts
  • Technology
  • The Industry
  • Uncategorized
  • What Customers Want

    Archives

    • January 2023 (20)
    • December 2022 (24)
    • November 2022 (21)
    • October 2022 (21)
    • September 2022 (21)
    • August 2022 (23)
    • July 2022 (20)
    • June 2022 (22)
    • May 2022 (21)
    • April 2022 (21)
    • March 2022 (23)
    • February 2022 (20)
    • January 2022 (21)
    • December 2021 (21)
    • November 2021 (21)
    • October 2021 (21)
    • September 2021 (21)
    • August 2021 (22)
    • July 2021 (21)
    • June 2021 (22)
    • May 2021 (20)
    • April 2021 (22)
    • March 2021 (24)
    • February 2021 (20)
    • January 2021 (20)
    • December 2020 (22)
    • November 2020 (19)
    • October 2020 (22)
    • September 2020 (21)
    • August 2020 (20)
    • July 2020 (22)
    • June 2020 (22)
    • May 2020 (21)
    • April 2020 (22)
    • March 2020 (23)
    • February 2020 (20)
    • January 2020 (22)
    • December 2019 (21)
    • November 2019 (20)
    • October 2019 (23)
    • September 2019 (20)
    • August 2019 (22)
    • July 2019 (22)
    • June 2019 (20)
    • May 2019 (23)
    • April 2019 (22)
    • March 2019 (21)
    • February 2019 (20)
    • January 2019 (22)
    • December 2018 (19)
    • November 2018 (20)
    • October 2018 (23)
    • September 2018 (19)
    • August 2018 (23)
    • July 2018 (21)
    • June 2018 (21)
    • May 2018 (22)
    • April 2018 (21)
    • March 2018 (22)
    • February 2018 (19)
    • January 2018 (22)
    • December 2017 (20)
    • November 2017 (20)
    • October 2017 (22)
    • September 2017 (20)
    • August 2017 (23)
    • July 2017 (19)
    • June 2017 (22)
    • May 2017 (22)
    • April 2017 (21)
    • March 2017 (23)
    • February 2017 (19)
    • January 2017 (21)
    • December 2016 (20)
    • November 2016 (20)
    • October 2016 (21)
    • September 2016 (21)
    • August 2016 (23)
    • July 2016 (20)
    • June 2016 (22)
    • May 2016 (21)
    • April 2016 (22)
    • March 2016 (23)
    • February 2016 (21)
    • January 2016 (20)
    • December 2015 (20)
    • November 2015 (20)
    • October 2015 (22)
    • September 2015 (22)
    • August 2015 (21)
    • July 2015 (22)
    • June 2015 (22)
    • May 2015 (21)
    • April 2015 (22)
    • March 2015 (22)
    • February 2015 (19)
    • January 2015 (20)
    • December 2014 (21)
    • November 2014 (19)
    • October 2014 (23)
    • September 2014 (21)
    • August 2014 (21)
    • July 2014 (20)
    • June 2014 (21)
    • May 2014 (21)
    • April 2014 (22)
    • March 2014 (20)
    • February 2014 (19)
    • January 2014 (22)
    • December 2013 (18)
    • November 2013 (15)
    • October 2013 (21)
    • September 2013 (13)
    • August 2013 (22)
    • July 2013 (19)
    • June 2013 (20)
    • May 2013 (22)
    • April 2013 (28)
    • March 2013 (2)

    Recent Comments

    BERNADINE R JOSELYN on No More Underbuilding

    Blog Stats

    • 799,566 hits

    Top Posts & Pages

    • No More Underbuilding
    • The Disappointment of 5G
    • Who's On First?
    • Getting Serious About Satellite Texting
    • Competing Against Big Cable Companies
    • About CCG
    • Is Telephony a Natural Monopoly?
    • The End of ACP
    • Job Postings
    • The DOCSIS vs. Fiber Debate

    Top Clicks

    • muninetworks.org/content/…
Powered by WordPress.com.
Go to mobile version
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: