Privacy issues loom amid rise of ‘smart’ household appliances
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 03 January, 2016, 11:04pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 03 January, 2016, 11:04pm
Associated Press
The internet of things looms large at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, with a host of products and devices wired to send and receive information. Photo: AFP
The internet of things looms large at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, with a host of products and devices wired to send and receive information.
They include everything from connected LED systems that sent messages to store managers about which displays customers are lingering in front of, to a switch that lets parents use a smartphone to turn on the lights in their teen’s room to wake them up – when the parent’s already at work.
Along with these networked devices will come a heaping helping of concern. Several CES panels are devoted to potential problems. Much of the discussion will focus on two main issues: privacy and security.
At its heart, the phrase “internet of things” simply means that an object has sensors embedded in it and the ability to send the data it collects outward, usually via Wi-fi or the internet.
The devil, as always, is in the details. How does it send and what does it send? Say the object in question were a nuclear power plant, a bicycle or a box of tissues.
If it’s a nuclear power plant, the data could include how hot the reactor is running, how much waste has built up and how much energy is being produced. A bicycle might broadcast its location, how hard the person riding it is working and whether its chain needs oiling. The tissues might send a message to your shopping list that the box is almost empty and you need to buy more.
Each of those examples also has a dark side.
Hackers could intercept information on how much spent fuel had built up and alert attackers looking to steal it. Or worm their way in and destabilise the cooling system to cause a melt down.
The cyclist could be tracked, or their fitness (or lack thereof) be used by an insurance carrier to jack up their rates.
And the tissue box could allow a marketer to infer your family is in the midst of a bout of illness and change the ads you see to include cold remedies. Worries abound.
Security experts fret that all these devices busy collecting, storing and sending information are not properly protected.
“We have to start ‘architecting’ security into the internet of things now, so it’s not the web all over again,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO of AVG Technologies.
However making money tends to be at the top of most company’s to do list, said Jeff Greene, senior policy counsel at Symantec. He doesn’t think the internet of things is going to bring about the End of Days, but he does worry that functionally is what sells and what’s driving development.
That’s all fine and good, but designers need to start thinking about privacy and security ahead of time, “as opposed to throwing it out there and seeing what happens”, said Greene, who will be speaking on a CES panel.
First and foremost, all these devices need an on-off switch “so it’s clear to the user when they’re being observed, so they can opt out when they want to,” said Nuala O’Connor, CEO of the Centre for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based privacy rights charity.
