By VICTORIA O’LAUGHLIN – The increasing ubiquity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created new risks. IoT refers to everyday internet-connected objects, devices, and sensors which can collect, store, and transmit data without much human assistance (Rose et al., 2015). Public spaces are increasingly filled with IoT devices, the purpose of which is to enhance the quality and fruitfulness of life (Tietz et al., 2018).

While the embedding of IoT devices in public infrastructure is meant to improve efficiency and the general ease of life, IoT comes with security and privacy concerns (Voas et al., 2018). In large part this is because these information-collecting technologies are being built into public spaces without comprehensive and standardized laws around implementation, maintenance, monitoring, and user rights – or, more specifically, privacy rights (“Quarterly Compliance Report – Information Compliance”, 2016).

Individuals cannot expect total privacy in public spaces for obvious reasons, but the information collection capabilities of IoT in public spaces raises serious, personal privacy concerns. For example, IoT can surveil and track individuals, it is difficult for individuals to opt out of having their personal private information collected by IoT, and it’s often unclear how their collected information is being used or even sold (Rose et al., 2015). Frighteningly, while the growth and implementation of IoT in public spaces rapidly continues, privacy regulation in most places remains unaddressed. By being in public, individuals choose to be seen and, therefore, give up some privacy, but most people do not expect systemic collection of data about them to be recorded in these areas. Read more: