Digital Privacy in the Age of IOT

Digital privacy is a tricky subject. On one hand, many people enjoy the connectivity and the flexibility of having their multiple devices communicate with each other. Whether that's a simple link between your smartphone and your laptop or the extreme of a Smart House, people enjoy the convenience that these devices offer. On the other hand, privacy becomes scarce as more and more cameras, microphones, and monitors track you throughout your day.
Smartphones track our movements, our location, our practices and much more. Our computers are tracking our browsing histories, our personal information and our spending habits. Smart devices, such as thermostats, doorbells, and baby monitors watch the areas around them and take that information to a database, somewhere and someone we may or may not know about.

Everyone has one of two reactions to this situation. The first one is that it doesn't really matter. Do people know where I am at? That's fine! The second reaction is typically worried, concerned, and a certain sense of is this information necessary to give out? Do I want people knowing all of this stuff about me?
Behind the concern or unconcern, most people share a damaging mindset: I can’t get along today without the devices in question, so I might as well deal with it.
Both of these opinions and the question are born out of some misinformation and misdirection. Let’s take a look at the situation today in order to understand digital privacy and how it’s being compromised all around us.
An overview of the situation today

Let’s start with a simple assessment of the typical American Family. Most of the family will have smartphones in order to communicate and stay in touch with everyone. Perhaps the parents will have a smartwatch or have made an investment in a smart doorbell or thermostat. These are the most common “smart devices” and access points to the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things is simply a fancy name for smart devices of today. It can include, but it's not limited to doorbells, monitors, thermostats, lighting, HVAC units, and cars. In many cases, all of these devices hook up to the internet and communicate information to each other over time and space.

Some of the issues of The Internet of Things include:
• Lack of security in the devices themselves
• Lack of security in the connected network of the things in question
• Too much accessibility across devices
• Lack of knowledge about how the Internet of Things works

While your laptop may be secured by a password and your phone may never leave you, the same can’t be said about devices that hook into your phone and laptop. For example, the security of smart doorbells isn’t the same as on your phone. It’s almost sure to be much less, if it’s present at all!

In addition, if your phone is hacked, your Internet network illicitly accessed, or connections tampered with, it’s very easy for people to access every device on your personal Internet of Things. Some of the information that may be at risk through a smart device includes:
• Banking information
• Location tracking (this one is extremely common and means more than where you are at any given moment)
• Compromised data, such as passwords
• and the inherent privacy of places such as homes, churches, and family circles

What kind of privacy should these places have? Where's the cut off between privacy and safety? And how do we navigate this in the digital world that we are facing today?

The answers to these questions revolve around digital privacy.

What is digital privacy?

Digital privacy is, in essence, the ability to secure one's personal/private life from devices such as smartphones, the Internet of Things, and other tracking devices. It covers such things as data collection by advertising, the privacy of personal information such as Social Security numbers, banking information, and location privacy.
In a world where everything is connected and/or virtual, digital privacy is the equivalent of being able to lock your house door against intruders.

Major threats against digital privacy

The biggest threat against digital privacy is the fact that most devices, by their nature, are going to collect, track, and store our data in ways that we don't understand. We don't understand how it's being used, where it's being stored, or who has access to it.

The next threat is that the devices can and will backfire. Perhaps the most spectacular example today is self-driving cars that don't necessarily allow for human override in moments of crisis. Other common examples include baby monitors that have been reverse-engineered so that people other than the parents can see the children. There are sure to be more as the Internet of Things develops.

Other threats of varying sizes include low-level surveillance on citizens, the understandably “creepy” feeling of such devices, and the sheer audacity of companies that leverage this knowledge for their own ends.

Major benefits of more open digital borders

With all that said, there are some benefits to allowing greater accessibility within our homes. For example, consider someone who is older and needs help in monitoring his or her health. A smartwatch or other monitoring device may be all that they need in order to stay in their home a few more years before making the switch to assisted living or another, more expensive solution.

The same could be said about high-risk children, infants, and other young people who need a little extra help in order to live their lives. As a general rule, these people need outside intervention in order to do some things. The Internet of Things can provide this and allow them to live on their own, in easier ways, and more independently.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of the Internet of Things will be in the medical field. Better monitors, equipment, and tracking will eliminate the need to rely on human observations. This can speed of treatment, care, and prescriptions to levels that wouldn't have been possible before. they can also make hospitals more efficient, healthcare easier and the system more competitive.

Education is another field that may be improved by the Internet of Things. For example, children can be reminded on a more regular basis to complete their work. Homeschooling may become easier with gamification, accessibility at all times, and monitoring the work in question.
There are advantages and disadvantages to every system. The Internet of Things is no different. However, the pros and cons of any given situation point to what issues and impacts these systems create for communities, countries, and the world at large. Let's move on to one of the wider issues at stake that the Internet of Things brushes up against and what we may be facing in the future.

The wider issues at stake

In the current COVID-19 pandemic, personal digital privacy can be exploited in ways that most people may not realize. The first way is very simple: your phone knows where you are. Google and Apple have announced that they are going to team up and are “partnering to help authorities track exposure to the coronavirus using Bluetooth technology.” To do this, the devices will necessarily track every device that they encounter, allowing a map showing location and interactions over time. Further, the calculated range from the encountered devices will also be used, providing an extremely detailed, unprecedented level of tracking and interaction information.

When individuals get their hands on this type of information, it can be used not only to track the spread of a virus, it can also be used to fight crime and terrorism, so the US federal government will definitely be interested in the data.
Beyond that, certain government actors might also be interested in other details that might be revealed by proximity and interactions. This data reveals not only where you were at a given date and time, but who specifically you spent time with. This is true even if you are using a powered-on network-enabled device that doesn’t participate in the collection system. Your device’s network identity will be passed to the system by the other devices that see it.

Editor Comment: DO NOT underestimate the impact! From this information, your political views, especially any “dissident” positions you may hold can be inferred. Especially if you are in favor of decentralizing power, limiting government (perhaps even on the topic of spying on and tracking the population), exercising nullification (as practiced by the founders and as defended by the 10th Amendment), or are just taking actions to ensure that your voice will be heard (exercisign the 1st Amendment). These actions work against the same centralizing “authorities” that want access to such information in the first place. The results will feed a justified paranoia, enable selective enforcement of Harvey Silvergate’s Three Felonies a Day, and lead to a chilling effect unprecedented in the history of the so-called “free world.” When this is done, then they will succeed in their desire for you to simply SHUT UP!

These systems will know who you spent your time with and can build all kinds of networks from the recorded interactions. They will not only know that you participated in a demonstration, they will know which specific part of the demonstration you were in, who specifically you interacted with, and will be able to target who to bring in for questioning if something bad happened.

They will not only know what church you went to, but roughly which pew you sat in and how you participated in the ceremony. They will know if you hung out afterwards to eat donuts and coffee and whether you spent any of that time visiting with the pastor.

In the Google and Apple article linked above, the US government was confirmed to be working with Facebook, Google, and others to gain cellphone data in order to find out where people are. Stating that the government is interested is far from being any sort of conspiracy theory.

Concerns about the pandemic aside, this breach of privacy is extremely worrying. Historically, governments do not give up power once they have it in their possession. When these forces are unleashed to deal with the current pandemic, what will it mean for the future? What does it mean? Is it worth it?
And how can we, as informed citizens, make decisions about our data, our digital privacy, and our safety during these times?

Editor Comment: Here at Ethical Developer Group we are working to make you aware so that you can free yourself from the Digital Panopticon, rather than become a subject to those who control it – whether they are the State, corporate, or private actors. Please subscribe to our mailing list in order to stay engaged! https://edgcert.com/