Following the second part “IoT: Your World at Somebody Else’s Fingertips?” of this series on IoT, here is part three focussing on the privacy of the user’s sensitive information.
Privacy becomes a very important factor to consider when it comes to user-specific data that these IoT devices generate and store locally and/or remotely.
Suppose a user’s IoT enabled medical devices send important data about his/her blood pressure, sugar level and diet information (remember the smart refrigerator!), then the user might experience one or more of the following:
- one of the nearest hospitals in his/her city might offer attractive packages for health check-ups
- medical information might be shared with pharmaceutical companies for them to offer discounted rates on user-specific medicines
- medical information like blood pressure, sugar level etc., will be helpful for a fitness company to target the user for a custom-made discounted fitness package
- medical records would be useful for an insurance provider to either stop an insurance pay-out or increase the premiums paid based on direct access to the user’s health report
And much, much more!
In addition one’s TV or set-top box might inform the dish service provider about the type of channels one often watches, such that the service provider could offer you a tailored package to renew the provider’s service. You might not even consider finding out what their competitors can offer! Of course, their competitors might well be following the same strategy with their own customers.
All of a sudden you might get an email from a famous detergent company about a discount sale on their brand of washing powder. That’s right, your IoT-enabled washing machine could have given away some information about your usage habits without your knowledge.
“So what?” “It is good anyway since we would save money and time.” You might say. Hold on one sec! There is also the annoyance factor … unsolicited messaging … spam!! That’s apart from the general leakage of personal information unbeknownst to you.
…to part4: IoT: What the Bad Guys do…
Image courtesy of:
internetmedicine.com
Senthil Velan
Manager,Vulnerability Research
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