IoT data monetization contributes to surveillance capitalism

Devices don’t necessarily have to be “supply-chain interfaces for the unobstructed flow” of intimate user data, as Zuboff said. Consumer devices can deliver value without commoditizing user data. But the data capture-package-sell model is the predominant IoT data monetization model today. The model is driven Designers of IoT devices can ensure user value aligns with awareness and trust. They should ask questions during the development process such as how can technology enlighten users while delivering the intended use case, and how can design maximize desired outcomes and trust while minimizing risk and obfuscation?

2. Commercial IoT powers the instruments for data profiling. The internet sector has pioneered the business models of behavioral targeting, but surveillance capitalism is In reality, years of invisible, unobstructed personal data sharing and sales have fostered a multibillion dollar data brokerage industry, according to CBS video report “The Data Brokers.” The diverse cast of intermediaries mine, fuse, categorize, package and resell profiles, “psychographics” and other propensities to any paying buyer, including those on the dark web.

The forces behind surveillance capitalism are greater than any single IoT provider. Leaders must consider whose interests their technology serves and who takes responsibility for downstream effects of data malpractice. They must ask how information can support diversified IoT data monetization models, not only for commercial resilience, but to address more urgent issues than behavioral targeting, such as carbon-free energy, education, disease cures and hunger.

3. IoT’s convergence with other technologies will influence the fate of surveillance capitalism. No technology is inherently an instrument of surveillance capitalism; it is a logic, not a technology. IoT devices and connected infrastructure are only part of the proverbial technology stack. AI, computer vision, augmented reality, social media, and emerging techniques and interfaces converging with IoT power and scale the surveillance capitalism logic. For example, computer vision endows connected cameras with facial and emotion recognition, which use AI to derive categorizations, such as happy or sick.

IoT’s convergence with other technologies does equate to more surveillance capitalism. Organizations employ tools to support the logic, but tools can also be employed to divert it. Differential privacy, federated learning, various de-identification and encryption techniques are new configurations designed to thwart unfettered flow of sensitive data.

IoT leaders must think beyond IoT, because multiple parallel technologies powering and converging with IoT can create new designs, power new capabilities and unlock new market opportunities. Surveillance capitalism itself was simply unimaginable prior to the digital milieu. It’s up to IoT leaders to design the next digital era — one that aligns foremost with people’s rights, dignity, safety and well-being.