Why does my coffee maker connect to WIFI?
“Is your refrigerator running?” *snickers*
“Yeah seems like it, it’s got full bars.”
“HAH gotcha, then you better go catch i- hold on what do you mean by full bars?”
“It’s a smart fridge. It’s connected to WIFI.”
“Huh, well they say there’s a first time for everything.”
Internet of Things
When did all our devices get so smart? We’ve got smartphones, smartwatches, smart home security systems, self-driving cars, smart fridges, and now even smart coffee makers! These smart devices are all a part of a system called the Internet of Things (IoT). IBM defines the Internet of Things as an umbrella term that refers to “the concept of connecting any device (so long as it has an on/off switch) to the Internet and to other connected devices. The IoT is a giant network of connected things and people — all of which collect and share data about the way they are used and about the environment around them.”
Many of these smart devices are advertised as things that can be integrated into your life to fill a need in some way whether that be promoting fitness or optimizing the organization of your family members’ schedules. But, there’s always a catch with Silicon Valley. In this case, the biggest ethical concern associated with IoT devices is the protection of personal data. For companies like Google and Amazon, the most lucrative part of these smart devices creeping into our homes is the data they collect on us. Data collection isn’t inherently malicious, but the lack of transparency about what they do with our data is unsettling. Is there a world in which these smart devices can do us more benefit than harm? I aim to argue that with the proper governance of these companies, yes.
But let me not get ahead of myself. First, let’s dive into a few examples of IoT devices.
Smartwatch
One of the most recognizable smart devices is smartwatches. One early iteration of smartwatches was Microsoft’s Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT)-Based Wristwatches in 2004. SPOT is a discontinued Microsoft initiative that Microsoft described as “The class of Smart Personal Objects includes watches and a host of other products such as alarm clocks, key chains and refrigerator-magnet clocks that are able to receive high-value, personalized information that is time-, location- and context-relevant.” Microsoft’s SPOT-based watches had a whole host of features such as “enhanced timekeeping characteristics” like as customizable watch faces and automatic time-adjustment based on location. Furthermore, they could receive and display personalized Web content using Microsoft’s DirectBand(TM) wireless technology.
Devices like this paved the way for the smartwatches we see and use today. One common branch of smartwatches is fitness tracker watches like Fitbits. Fitbits were first used as pedometers preset with a goal of 10,000 steps a day. Many of us fell into the habit of competing with our family members and friends to see who could hit this 10,000-step goal. Fitbit devices quickly rose in popularity due to Fitbit capitalizing on the gamification of fitness and as Peter Rubin writes “…the numbers, the feedback, the idea that you could use it all to make yourself healthier, better.”
Due to the success of Fitbit and other fitness tracking software, many of today’s smartwatches include fitness tracking capabilities. For instance, one of the most recognizable smartwatches of today, the Apple Watch includes an activity application that allows users to keep “track of your movement throughout the day and encourages you to meet your fitness goals.” These fitness goals include how much time you spend standing, moving, and exercising each day. The more you complete each of these goals in a 24-hour time period, the more complete the ring representing each one of these goals becomes.
Smart fridge
Another sting in the ball of yarn that is the Internet of Things is smart fridges. Although fridges with internet features have been around since 1998, we’re going to focus on one of the latest models of these devices: Samsung’s “it’s more than just a fridge” Family Hub. As the name suggests, this smart fridge is advertised to people as a device that is to be used by the whole family that will act as a central “hub” in a household. The Family Hub offers users a variety of services. For instance, people can view what is inside their fridge from their mobile devices, look up recipes based on what food is inside their fridge, meal plan, and can even send cooking instructions to a Samsung smart oven. Family Hub also allows people to “share pictures, videos or drawings, leave handwritten notes, and sync calendars.” Finally, you can use entertainment applications like Spotify and NPR and you can access Ring and Alexa from the Family Hub.
While increasing technology in the home is generally blamed as something that isolates people, is it possible that new technologies like the Family Hub can actually bring people together in a new way? Leticia, a blogger, and founder of Tech Savvy Mama seems to think so. Boosting the benefits of this device Leticia writes, “A tech savvy family like ours could manage our family calendar, leave digital notes for each other, use it as a dynamic photo wall where ever-changing photos could always provide fun memories and things to talk about, and have it serve as a new hub, proving us with headline news, the day’s weather, and other information that is relevant to our day directly from the surface of our refrigerator.” Leticia continues to say how the Family Hub can function as a way to connect with extended family while simultaneously cutting down the need to check more devices than just the digital display on the smart refrigerator: “I also appreciate that friends and relatives can send photos that can pop up directly on the Family Hub Refrigerator for us to immediately swoon over without having to pick up another device. Music has always played in the background in our kitchen whether I’m cooking or reading the paper at the kitchen table on the weekend and now we can stream favorite stations directly from our fridge.”
AI Voice Assistants
Another highly recognizable set of devices that falls under the IoT classification is artificially intelligent voice assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Small, sleek devices house these faceless voices that are ready to respond to our questions and commands, triggered by a simple Hey Alexa or Hey Google. AI voice assistants use natural language processing and machine learning to understand your voice and to respond accordingly.
The Answer’s in the Data
Smartwatches, smart refrigerators, and AI assistants, oh my! All these smart devices are advertised to help users in some way whether that be health benefits, creating a synchronized hub in the household, or as a personal assistant, but what do companies like Fitbit, Apple, Amazon, and Google get out of these devices? The answer: much more than just the hundreds or thousands of dollars we spend purchasing these devices, your data. These companies largely use your data to inform targeted advertising and to choose what content to show you on your devices and social media.
Privacy
With all these devices integrated into peoples’ homes and way of life, the producers of these devices are able to collect more data and more kinds of data about people than ever before. With this in mind, is there a way to maintain privacy in this increasingly digital world?
With all the aforementioned devices, comes a slew of privacy concerns.
Now that Google owns Fitbit, the way in which the user health data that is collected by Fitbit devices is used is even more unclear. We do know that Fitbit became HIPPA-compliant in 2015, but there is not much transparency on how Google will use the non-health-related data, such as location data, that Fitbit devices collect.
In the case of smart refrigerators and AI voice assistants, privacy concerns arise with how much personal information people willingly hand over without much knowledge of how/if this personal information is protected. For example, we give these smart devices access to our personal schedules, locations, contacts, electronic messages, and more.
The Need for Regulations
Because the production of new technologies moves on a much faster timeline than governmental bureaucracy, especially in the United States, tech companies are largely able to make their own rules about what they are allowed to do with things like user data collected from the devices they sell.
In their article for the journal Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery Francine Berman, a computer-science professor, and Vint Cerf, an engineer considered one of the fathers of the internet argue that “The difference between an IoT that enhances society and one that diminishes it will be determined by our ability to create an effective model for IoT governance.” However, this is easier said than done. Berman and Cerf continue to point out that there are some big challenges to overcome in the case of creating legal/ethical regulations for IoT devices.
First, there are so many different kinds of IoT devices, like the ones already mentioned in this article, that it would be difficult to make just one set of rules that would apply to all of these devices. Next, this set of rules would need to be able to answer the question of who is to be held accountable for the actions of autonomous systems. Berman and Cerf provide the example of a car accident caused by an autonomous vehicle. Is the accident the company who made the car’s fault or the person in the car using the software? Finally, Berman and Cerf raise a fantastic point about ethics. If we are to program ethics into IoT devices or hold them to an ethical standard, whose ethical standards should these devices be judged against. The company’s? The government? Or, an entirely separate standard that has yet to be invented?
Access and Data Biases
Another ethical dilemma posed by IoT devices is access to these devices. With smartwatches, refrigerators, and coffee makers all being more expensive than ordinary versions of these devices, only those who are financially privileged will tend to have these in their homes. This fact becomes a bigger issue when you take into consideration that the big tech companies are using this data to make decision about people. The potential for biases in data is another issue that should be taken into consideration as an argument for why there should be more involved regulations on technologies that deal in the data of our personal lives like the devices in the Internet of Things.
Conclusion
More and more of our household products will be designed to be connected to the internet. We are told these “smart” products are created for user convenience or to improve our health or safety. However, the truth is that these companies use IoT devices to collect your data in order to assist with their targeted adverstising and more. The scarier truth is that it is not entirely clear what this “and more” is. Without standardized legal and ethical regulations set in place for new technologies like those found in the Internet of Things, these devices in our homes may be more invasive than beneficial. However, I think that with the proper governance of these technologies, IoT devices can be better friends than foes. As it stands, the lack of transparency from big tech companies elicits concern for privacy when it comes to personal data and IoT devices, but with proper governance to counteract the privacy concerns that accompany IoT devices, these technologies can be beneficial in daily use. Leticia’s enthusiastic description of Samsung’s FamilyHub plus not having to worry about anyone stealing your family’s personal data sounds like a win-win to me. Although, until such regulations are put in place, it is necessary to be skeptical of the full function of IoT devices and to hold big companies accountable. I believe the beloved Parks and Recreation character Ben Wyatt says it best: “A person should not have to have an advanced law degree to avoid being taken advantage of by a multibillion dollar company. You should be upfront about what you’re doing and allow people the ability to opt out.”
References:
Clark, Jen. “What Is the Internet of Things, and How Does It Work?” IBM Business Operations Blog, 28 Aug. 2020, https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/what-is-the-iot/.
“Microsoft Presents Smart Personal Objects Technology (Spot)-Based Wristwatches at CES.” Stories, 9 Jan. 2003, https://news.microsoft.com/2003/01/09/microsoft-presents-smart-personal-objects-technology-spot-based-wristwatches-at-ces/.
Rubin, Peter. “How Fitbit Started the Wearables Craze and Got Us All Moving.” Wired, Conde Nast, 15 Sept. 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/how-fitbit-got-us-all-moving/.
“Track Daily Activity with Apple Watch.” Apple Support, https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/track-daily-activity-with-apple-watch-apd3bf6d85a6/watchos.
Cook, James. “A Complete History of Internet-Connected Fridges.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Jan. 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/the-complete-history-of-internet-fridges-and-connected-refrigerators-2016-1#1999-internet-fridges-will-help-you-live-like-the-jetsons-2.
“Samsung Family Hub™️: Samsung Us: Undefined Undefined.” Samsung Us, 16 Nov. 2021, https://www.samsung.com/us/explore/family-hub-refrigerator/overview/.
Leticia. “How Tech Savvy Families Can Connect through Samsung’s Family Hub Refrigerator.” Tech Savvy Mama, 17 Aug. 2016, https://techsavvymama.com/2016/05/how-tech-savvy-families-can-connect-through-samsungs-family-hub-refrigerator.html.
Williams, Andrew. “Google Now Owns Fitbit: What It Means for Your Fitness Data Privacy.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 Jan. 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewwilliams/2021/01/14/google-now-owns-fitbit-what-it-means-for-your-fitness-data-privacy/?sh=7fcb65d639e1.
Sawh, Michael. “What Is Google Going to Do with Your Fitbit Data? Anything It Likes.” WIRED UK, 5 Nov. 2019, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-buying-fitbit-health-data-privacy.
Berman, Francine, and Vinton G. Cerf. “Social and Ethical Behavior in the Internet of Things.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 60, no. 2, 2017, pp. 6–7., https://doi.org/10.1145/3036698.
