AI’s and IOT Role In The Future Of Data Privacy

The power to do everything online is something of an ideal. Buying groceries, seeing your doctor via telehealth: the possibilities are endless. Especially with the shutdowns of the last 18 months, logging in for instant access to both essential and entertaining platforms has been a lifesaver. And yet, this world-at-our-fingertips reality isn’t without risks.

In tandem with the rise of online resources is the reality of breaches, fraud, and even identity theft. So far, 2021 has already seen leaks of personality identifiable information (PII) for millions of users through well-publicized incidents, such as Ubiquiti, Parler, Mimecast, Pixlr, and more. People’s data has been lost, stolen, exposed, and hacked. Unfortunately, this trend isn’t new and can cost companies an average of $3.86 million per breach, not to mention the harm to the users themselves.

People have fundamentally changed the way they interact online and the kinds of online services they use. Because that is true, the burden is on companies to enhance security and protect users’ privacy. But how? For many, the answer lies in artificial intelligence (AI).?

AI, IoT, and various related technologies are becoming more prominent in modern society by the day.

Together, they have incredible implications: These technologies can make our cities safer, help companies become more efficient, and even bring about the “smart homes” we’ve long anticipated. And even those examples are barely scratching the surface.

Along with all of the benefits, we can reap from AI, IoT, and related tech, though, there are also significant concerns about personal privacy.

In looking at ‘100 Data Privacy and Data Security Statistics for 2020’?recently, we noted that 84% of respondents to surveys indicated that they “care about privacy, care for their data, and care about the data of other members of society….” The same group had a desire for more control over data.

This shows that?most?of us consider personal privacy an issue, and given that AI and the IoT are now affecting?all?of us, the privacy implications are worth thinking about.

To cover all of how these technologies may impact our privacy may not be entirely possible. The tech is still evolving, and for each application, there are different potential issues. In broad terms, though, the following are how AI, IoT, and related technologies affect our privacy.

? We Become Data

We’re all generally aware of the idea that the modern world runs on data, which is collected in countless ways and from numerous sources. But the true scope of recent data is still almost challenging to grasp.

A write-up on the state of?big data on Verizon Connect puts forth raw numbers and states that we’ve produced roughly 90% of?all?available data in the world in just the past few years.

That speaks to the extent to which data gathering is accelerating, and it’s no coincidence that this acceleration coincides with the rise of AI and the IoT.

These technologies are responsible for the collection and logging of virtually unlimited troves of information. And that includes information about us. Thus, the broadest concern about privacy concerning modern tech is simply that we become data points that are used for research, business strategies, and more — whether we like it or not.

What We Share Can Be Permanent

This point relates to the idea of becoming data, but specifically has to do with permanence. Last year,?Wired wrote about the next big privacy concern, which they define as the tendency of AI to remember.

The publication suggested that the “right to be forgotten” — something proposed by the GDPR in 2018 — may be under threat from modern AI. The idea originally was that people ought to be able to expect the information they enter online to disappear in time, or that they ought to be able to request its erasure.

AI, however, can’t always be trusted to adhere to these ideas. As a result, we have another privacy concern. AI systems can have a nasty habit of remembering things that we don’t intend to reveal or share permanently.

The IoT Can Invite Eavesdropping

Where the IoT specifically is concerned, the incredible convenience of the technology, unfortunately, invites eavesdropping as a sort of side effect.

The easiest example is to think of a modern smart home — essentially a home environment comprised of different IoT devices connected to one another, and to the internet.

You can enjoy a lot of perks with a system like this. But it’s also possible?for specific IoT devices to be compromised, such that they’re actually used to gather information about you against your will (say, by making the feed from a home security camera visible to a stranger).

This is not a statement meant to inspire paranoia or fear about the IoT or smart homes specifically. Rather, it’s a reason to be cautious and diligent about security and privacy. More often than not, the benefits of the IoT will outweigh the risks. But it’s certainly possible for a given IoT device to negatively affect privacy.

We Can Produce Unwanted Public Profiles

The idea of an unwanted public profile is similar to the broader concept of our becoming data points against our will. But it’s still a specific notion that deserves some attention.

A?Business Insider piece on IoT security spoke to this as one of the chief privacy issues with modern technology. It explained that connected devices collect data about us that can then be used to assess or profile us without our knowledge.

One example given, for instance, is that a vehicle with IoT elements can compile data about driver performance, which can, in turn, be used by an insurance company when calculating an insurance rate.

?Be aware of the privacy risks

Modern technologies don’t ultimately have to be scary or unsettling, and again, the benefits of AI and the IoT are significant as well. But it’s still important to be aware of the privacy risks so that you can guard yourself against them accordingly.

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Bibliography:

https://www.identityforce.com/blog/2021-data-breaches

https://www.verizonconnect.com/uk/resources/article/big-data-improves-business/

https://www.wired.com/story/the-next-big-privacy-hurdle-teaching-ai-to-forget/

https://dataprivacymanager.net/glossary/the-right-to-be-forgotten/

https://dataprivacymanager.net/how-ai-iot-and-related-technologies-are-affecting-our-privacy/

https://www.businessinsider.com/iot-security-privacy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anniebrown/2021/07/02/ais-role-in-the-future-of-data-privacy/?sh=21810c4318c0

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