Consumers Wary On IoT Privacy

The Internet of Things has been heralded as a harbinger of a new kind of living. When everything is connected, information will flow more freely than ever before, but in terms of consumer data privacy, that may not be a good thing across the board.

Those are at least the findings of a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center. By presenting participants with six defined IoT-inspired situations where consumers’ private information would be collected and analyzed in return for some technological payoff, Pew researchers found that the average person’s opinion differed on privacy concerns based on the circumstance in and purpose for which the info is being collected. For example, the situation that drew the largest contingent of approval — about 54 percent — involved face-tracking technology being installed in an office to cut down on theft and potentially calculate employee attendance and performance.

By contrast, the scenario drawing the least amount of approval from respondents involved a smart thermostat that offered savings on utility bills if users let it track whether people were in the house, when they entered and exited rooms and much more.

While the average participant was willing to withdraw control over his or her personal information in certain circumstances, that still did not prevent feelings of being taken advantage of or of having the wool pulled over one’s eyes, as one participant’s response to the lack of transparency on the part of retailers shows.

“In my opinion, there is a woeful lack of disclosure on how personal information is used by companies,” one participant told Pew. “If you read some of the terms of service, you are essentially giving the company the right to do almost anything with your personal information.”

This might end up as an important distinction as the Internet of Things keeps growing and collecting more information; though the average netizen is willing to part with control over their digital identities, they’re not going to be exactly happy about it in every case.