The Internet of Things

What is my definition?

Ubiquitous computing. Microprocessors in everything we use. RFID tagging technology. Massive connected Sensor Networks. Huge databases and processing centers. Everything will become hyper efficient but at the cost of Security. Security will have enormous value when everything becomes connected.

Self Driving Cars:

I think self driving cars will have massive economic and social impacts. If all cars were connected by a central network or behaved in flock like patterns (being aware of their surroundings and completely reactive) it could eliminate the need for stop lights and allow the cars to operate at maximum efficiency. Also, because computers can react much quicker than humans, could drastically reduce the amount of crashes and the number of car related deaths. Who doesn’t want that? Well, this also makes cars suseptible to hacking. Over 100 cars were disabled because an employee decided to take his anger out on some customers. This may be the most obvious objection to the IoT… While self driving cars might drastically reduce the number of car related deaths, if an accident does occur it might affect 100’s, even 1000’s of people at once. Cars could be exploited in endless ways.

The Soofa Couch:

A bench developed by MIT. The bench harvests energy from the sun, collects air quality data, noise level, and can duals as a bench and charging station. This thing is much less complicated compared to a self driving car – but still may be a security or potentially a privacy concern. While many of these IoT devices seem beneficial overall, they come with price – your security and privacy – whatever that may be worth.

 

How do you measure the value of personal data/information? How do you measure the value of your privacy? Are connected devices worth giving up all privacy? For better or for worse, I think the IoT is here to stay and will quickly touch everyone’s lives in some way. Its only a matter of time before the answers to these value questions surface.