The role of Ethical Design regarding privacy and IoT
SecKit is a tool that can help companies in designing more secure IoT devices
A recent research from 2016, called “Ethical Design in the Internet of Things” provides a proposal to companies to use the concept called Ethical Design though a policy-based framework SecKit when designing IoT devices in order to be more transparent in data handling. SecKit or also called Security Toolkit is already available for use and can give the users more choices in how they want their data to be collected, stored or used.
The scientific article presents eleven challenges for Ethical Design in the IoT industry, some of those are concerned regarding accountability, digital divide, costs or conformance to regulatory frameworks. In principle, in order to function, every business’ aim is to bring revenue at the end of the month, however, the economic aspect should not be the only deciding factor when designing an IoT device. The companies gather enormous amount of data from their users and the way this data is stored, handled or used should be transparent to the users, they should be aware of what is happening to their data and what can happen if this data is lost, hacked or misused. Due to the arisen issues, governments also started taking measures, for instance EU submitted a proposal called Data Protection Regulation (DPR), thus, it can be said that it is a serious matter concerning the human rights.
“A key facet in ethical design is the transparency of the technology and services in how that technology handles data, as well as providing choice for the user.” (Ethical Design in the Internet of Things by Baldini, Botterman, Neisse and Tallacchini).
The concept of Ethical Design can empower the users in giving them more choices when using IoT device, but it can also bring many advantages to the companies. Firstly, the implementation through Ethical Design can help companies in reducing business risks and function according to ethics, which means that the legal issues are lowered. Secondly, users who have ethical concerns in how the companies handle their data will rather approach the companies that pay attentions to this type of characteristics than others who do not. Thirdly, the companies will bring added value to society and the trust between customers and companies will be at a higher level and this can benefit both the company but also the society.
Lastly, the researchers propose the framework called SecKit (Security Toolkit). This tool gives the user the possibility to create profiles and configure them according to their needs, for instance, they can set what data the IoT device can store, how much data to store in different situations and so on. The developers can make it easier for users who do not have prior experience in using this type of tool and enhance the customer journey by pre-generating profiles.
Companies will gain more advantages if they use Ethical Design and are transparent in the process of handling the data. Data privacy is a serious issue, hence researchers also are working in creating frameworks or concepts that can help the business world in overcoming the challenges. Ethical Design contributes in creating a better society.
About the authors
To find out more about the scientific article visit Springerlink.com. Four researchers, Gianmarco Baldini, Maarten Botterman, Ricardo Neisse and Mariachiara Tallacchini published in 2016 the scientific article on Springerlink called “Ethical Design in the Internet of Things”. The authors have different background and come from different countries.
