Ethics and the Internet of

Things – an Oxymoron?Things – an Oxymoron?Paul Green, Arkessa

British Computer Society / ICT

19 March 2012

Unintended Consequences

Credit to Motorcycle News

M2M – Silo Communities

Corporate

Utilities

Government

IndustrialArkessa

Centre for GPRS & 3G InternetInternet

Extending the Internet to

anything, anywhere

Engineering

Healthcare

Community

Consumer

Remote

Internet

GPRS & 3G

Networks

InternetInternet

Fixed IP Address

Private or Public?

M2M or IOT – Entangled Communities

Manufacturer

Industrial

Control

Extending the Internet to

anything, anywhereManufacturer

Brand-owner

Electric utility

Bread-maker

Healthcare

Community

Daughter

anything, anywhere

Surveillance Society

� CCTV

- Security, Safety

- Protection, Insurance

� Voice characteristics

- Potential for violence

� Driver behaviour

- Potential for accidents

� Advertising

- Google, Minority Report

• Potential for murder

• Potential for sales

Home and Personal Devices

� 52bn connected devices in EU

- At least 10 per person

� Personal

- Fitness, lifestyle, training, bike

- Entertainment, hobbies, car, travel

- Smart watches, glasses, clothes- Smart watches, glasses, clothes

- Life-logging

� Home

- Food, shopping, post

- Appliances, heating, lighting

- Access, security, energy, utilities

- Garden: watering, greenhouse, shed

Age of the individual

- Mental clutter

- Permanent partial

attention

Will we bother?

Our challenge:

Knowing

what to care

Thanks to the Guardian

Will we bother?

- Work pressure

- Time pressure

- Economic pressure

what to care

about

Why privacy an issue?

� Things that you want to control / monitor

- But may provide data elsewhere unknown to you

- You may inadvertently have given permission for them to do so

• Small type terms or agreement for advertising etc.

� Things that are connected that you don’t know about

- Who has access to the information?

- How much does this tell them about you?

� Relatively benign data that is inter-connected

- Things that are apparently trivial

- Conclusions drawn from amassing and relating trivial data

Data Pollution

Just data Inter-related data

Good Information =

Data in right place

Bad information

Data in wrong place

Bad World = Danger!Good World = Benefits!

Sharing data

- Smart personal activity

- Community care + freedom

- Empowered consumers

Sharing data

- Smart government

- Community control

- Command economy

Beginnings … managed data access

Managed

Centre for

Remote

Internet

Patient Data stays in region

Generalised data only is pooled

Access ‘keys’ to personal data

Challenge: complex diagnostics

Aging population stimulus for home healthcare

Signs of Hope

� Information limits

� Data handling controls

� Data Keys for access

� Awareness� Awareness

- Life-logging

� Virtual reality machines

- Makes the issues real

� Unintended benefits

Thank you!

Ethics and the

Internet of Things –

an Oxymoron?

Paul Green

paul.green@arkessa.com

+44 (0) 7974 223398

Thank you!