Key considerations for companies in the rapid adoption of IoT technologies and its impact on privacy and the data protection of consumers

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an electronics-based ecosystem in which electronic devices are interconnected and capable of communicating with one another over the internet, and the technology has experienced an increase in usage around the world in recent years. Although the benefits of the IoT technology are many, there have also been many ethical and privacy-related issues and risks that have emerged over the past decades that can be linked to it. Activists and academics have been actively trying to identify, address and tackle the issues and risks that the IoT technology poses to the everyday consumer. This has not always been an easy task, given the complex nature of the technology itself, its increasingly changing purposes and its extraterritorial reach. This paper will focus on four privacy and data protection topics that have a major impact on the rights and freedoms of the everyday IoT technology user, or the consumer. These include the processing of the geolocation data, the risks of personal data breaches within the IoT environment, the issue of securing personal data during and following cross-border transfers, and the risks stemming from data localisation requirements. When discussing these issues, practical solutions to tackle them will also be discussed and presented in more detail.