Internet of Things: Is It As Good As We Think?

Imagine this: You get up in the morning by the sweet wakeup call from a female voice. Yet this sweet sound is not your lover or mom, it is an intelligent computer operating system personified through a female voice. You said thank you, then ask for a cup of espresso to be prepared as you take a bath. Voila! As you walk out from the bathroom, a nice hot espresso is served. While you are sipping the espresso, you want to know if your car is in prime condition since you have to go out of town today. The female voice answer is that everything perfectly works. You leave your empty house behind by driving your car, but no, it is actually the car that lead you the way. Even though you lived alone, you don’t need to worry for the house’s security. Everything is under control of your mobile phone.

Illustration above is simple way of how the Internet of Things (IoT) works. There is a rush to connect home appliances to the internet. These “smart” devices can communicate with our phones and with each other to automate daily activities. This increase in wifi-enabled devices is called the “Internet of Things” (Parajuli). The new rule for the future is going to be, "Anything that can be connected, will be connected." (Morgan).  All you need to do and know is just one click away. For 20 seconds it sounds really exciting, after 20 seconds it fell apart and you sort of realize how it actually works, IoT is both exciting and terrifying. IoT is trippy.     

‘Internet of Things’ gives us benefits and opportunities. It may affect every single aspect of our lives. Either you are only using internet/technology as basic necessity or you are the business and government agency who views tech as the ultimate opportunity to improve civilization. Early this year, Bridget Karlin, Managing Director of Intel, says “I am excited about IoT, it’s a truly revolutional era of tech. A moment to converge with the physical and digital world. The transformative experience is to connect everyday objects, get data, and analyze.”

Take a look at this info graphic for an example. It shows how wonderful it will be if everything is connected. ‘The smart world’ is giving you the easiest, the most efficient, eco-friendly, and comfortable standard of living. Who doesn’t want the economic and social benefits that come with it?

(Image courtesy of Libelium. Get here for a better view)

 In the same panels, Alan Davidson, Director of Digital Economy and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce, US Department of Commerce, says “It’s a combination of things. What has captivated from the policy makers side is opportunity and impact, it’s the scale. We’ve got 3.5 billion people, and many more connected devices. It can support products and change the supply chain, and industry. It’s the connection to the physical and connetic world, and that combination is going to have a big impact. There is a huge opportunity if we get it right, but we can get it wrong.” The challenges are in the digital security and privacy risk area and human resource issue.

The users will have to come to terms with the fact that connecting any physical device to the Internet exposes them to some degree of digital security risk, and when personal data is involved, to potential privacy challenges. Like this powerful new login system from the iPhone X for instance, will Apple ever use Face ID for anything other than unlocking phones? Or the hackers make some incredible breakthrough that might threatening our database? In the current system, that data stays on the phones, but that could always change  (Brandom).

Apple’s new facial recognition system (Image courtesy of Apple)

Another question around the IoT is its implications towards employment or the human resource subject. If countries or companies go fully automatic, the robotic system might perform better and more efficient which lead to reducing costs and prices. The domino effects are the job loss and frictions in economy. Are we ready for this big change?

Works Cited

Brandom, Russell. The five biggest questions about Apple’s new facial recognition system. 12 September 2017. 13 September 2017 <https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/12/16298156/apple-iphone-x-face-id-security-privacy-police-unlock>.

Morgan, Jacob. A Simple Explanation Of 'The Internet Of Things'. 13 May 2014. 8 September 2017 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/#196a18921d09>.

Parajuli, Abhisek. The Internet of Things will kill privacy for good unless we act now. 10 September 2017. 8 September 2017 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/09/10/internet-things-will-kill-privacy-good-unless-act-now/>.

Slowey, Lynne. IoT benefits, challenges, and opportunities: CES 2017. 6 January 2017. 8 September 2017 <https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/iot-benefits-challenges-opportunities/>.

“The Internet of Things: Seizing the Benefits and Addressing the Challenges.” 2016 May 2016. OECD. 8 September 2017 <http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DSTI/ICCP/CISP(2015)3/FINAL&docLanguage=En>.