Viewpoint | Personal Data and the Internet of Things: It is time to care about digital provenance
This viewpoint highlights privacy and transparency issues in IoT for society, but it is incremental as it calls for action rather than presenting new research.
The paper addresses the problem of personal data processing in the Internet of Things, arguing that current technical solutions for transparency and management are inadequate and urgently need improvement.
The Internet of Things promises a connected environment reacting to and addressing our every need, but based on the assumption that all of our movements and words can be recorded and analysed to achieve this end. Ubiquitous surveillance is also a precondition for most dystopian societies, both real and fictional. How our personal data is processed and consumed in an ever more connected world must imperatively be made transparent, and more effective technical solutions than those currently on offer, to manage personal data must urgently be investigated.