As you will all know the Internet of Things (IoT) is a very hot and interesting item. But what is the IoT exactly and what will be the benefits and the cons in case it will be applied on a large scale? Let me start with a general description. The IoT has been defined in Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060 (06/2012) as a global infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies. Thus, IoT provides connectivity for everyone and everything.
Proponents of this development argue that a lot of manual processes can be automated and the functionality of products will improve significant. If the information from the internet will be added to dumb objects, they are useful and perhaps more versatile. One of the most famous examples is perhaps the intelligent thermostat which is connected with the internet and your smartphone. The device learns why, when and how to get the temperature down or turn up and will do that automatically later for you. When it becomes warmer outside, the heating will be less likely to catch on and as the weather gets colder, the thermostat will ensure that it stays warm in the house when needed.
Opponents refute the benefits with the following arguments. The fact that everything is connected to the internet means that hackers can enjoy themselves completely and can demand access to our daily lives. In addition, there is a lot of data consumed by the cloud, especially if we use more and more smart products. Since we will use more and more intelligent products, more data will be stored in the cloud. Because devices know exactly what you want, often means businesses know what your preferences are. And then the question is how they deal with it. Early adaptors must think carefully about this and consider the consequences.
What is your opinion about the IoT? And what kind of ethical questions must be considered and argued?
- References:
- J. Gubbi, R. Buyya, S. Marusic, & M.P., Palaniswami. The Internet of Things: A vision, architectural elements, and future directions, 2013, pp. 1645-1660.
- http://www.itu.int/
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/06/what-is-the-internet-of-things-google
Hi Koen thanks for sharing this interesting article. I think that the IoT can be very handy and enhance the daily life of a lot of people. I know that Samsung for example sells washing machines that connect to wifi and Siemens has fridges with built in cameras that also connect to an app. For other type of “things” however where the data is more sensitive i think it that definitely the question” who has acces to which data?” is very important. I personally also think the consumer has to be in control to some extent over who has acces to the data about them.