What is the Internet of Behaviour (IoB) and why is it the future?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of interconnected physical items that gather and share data and information over the Internet. The breadth of the IoT's complexity is continually increasing and changing, i.e. the way devices are interconnected, the calculations that may be processed autonomously by these items, and the data that is stored in the cloud change in a more complicated way. Data gathering (BI, Big Data, CDPs, and so on) gives important information on client behaviours, interests, and preferences, and has been dubbed the Internet of Behaviour (IoB). The IoB seeks to comprehend the data acquired from users' online activities via the lens of behavioural psychology. It aims to answer the question of how to interpret data.

The term IoB then refers to a procedure in which user-controlled data is analysed from a behavioural psychology standpoint. The findings of that investigation drive new ways to developing a user experience (UX), search experience optimization (SXO), and how organisations sell their final goods and services. As a result, while doing IoB is technically straightforward, it is psychologically complicated. For ethical and legal reasons, it is necessary to perform statistical studies that record everyday routines and behaviours without totally compromising customer privacy.

Furthermore, IoB integrates current technologies that directly focus on the person, such as facial recognition, location monitoring, and Big Data. As a result, it is a synthesis of three disciplines: technology, data analytics, and behavioural psychology.

What does the IoB stand for and how does it help?

The IoB's goal is to collect, analyse, comprehend, and respond to all forms of human behaviours in a way that permits tracking and analysing the behaviours of individuals utilising developing technology advancements and advances in machine learning algorithms. People's behaviour is monitored, and incentives or disincentives are used to persuade people to perform in accordance with a set of operating criteria. What is truly important about IoB is that it is both descriptive (analysing behaviour) and proactive (detecting which psychological variables to influence to bring about a certain outcome).

The IoB has an impact on customer choice, but it also changes the value chain. While some consumers are hesitant to provide their data, many others are willing to do so if it brings value — data-driven value. For businesses, this implies being able to modify their image, promote items more successfully to their consumers, or improve a product's or service's Customer Experience (CX). In theory, data on all aspects of a user's life may be collected with the ultimate purpose of enhancing efficiency and quality.

Fundamentally, in order for a corporation to implement IoB in its marketing department, the following parameters must be met. To begin, before developing the programme, consider the user's interaction patterns and touch points. Include customers in the development process, understand their needs, maintain the app experience united and coherent, and make navigation clear and meaningful so that the app is relevant and helpful. Once the software is up and running, explain its purpose, provide a user guide, and reward by gamifying the app's user experience. A high level of user interaction is essential.

Second, robust tools are necessary, such as multi-format support platforms (XML, JSON, PHP, CVS, HTML, and so on) that can connect to any API and upload data to the cloud, i.e. the essential capabilities of platforms like Google or Facebook. Platforms should support multi-channel personalisation, replicating centralised updates, providing unique alerts that transform users into contributors to the app's customisation, social media integration, and an interactive UI.

Finally, the data collected by the app is used to model user behaviour. In turn, this is actionable data that can be delivered to the consumer in the form of pop-ups and notifications to encourage and incentivize them to adhere to a desired behaviour. Analytics are required so that important information may be pulled from all of the data.

The importance of IoB and its ethical application

Information may be retrieved from various points of contact thanks to Big Data. This allows you to investigate the CX from beginning to end, learning where a customer's interest in a product originates, their route to purchase, and the methods utilised to make the purchase. This allows for the creation of more contact points to favourably engage the consumer. Personalization is critical to the efficiency of a service. The more efficient a service is, the more the user will continue to interact and even alter their behaviour as a result.

The issue that might arise with this technique is not technological in nature. The IoB is challenged by the difficulties of data collection, storage, and utilisation. Its amount of access is difficult to monitor, thus all businesses must be aware of the risks associated with IoB use. Google, Facebook, and Amazon continue to buy technologies that, without the user's permission, may take them from a single app to their whole online environment. This poses substantial legal and security hazards to privacy rights, which differ across governments globally.

Cybercriminals can use behavioural data to get access to sensitive data that indicates client trends, gather and sell property access codes, delivery routes, and even banking credentials. These thieves might take phishing to the next level by developing more sophisticated schemes that are customised to the behaviours of specific users, increasing the possibility that users would be fooled. As a result, it is critical to have a secure platform, storage, and execution of data using technologies such as Confidential Computing, E2E encryption, or SDP tools.