Safety of the Internet of Things
What is the Internet of Things and why is it important to us? By definition, the Internet of Things is an interconnection via Interconnections of all devices that enables them to share and receive information. As technology advances, our society relies more heavily on technology to do every day tasks for us to make our lives easier. We use technology for work, education, entertainment, exercise and many more activities. The Internet of Things is a tool designed to make our lives easier by recording and recalling our data whenever we need. Technology plays a huge part of our lives that everything we do from the start of our days to the minute we sleep and even during our sleep is recorded. Certain pieces of technology have been invented to make things in life more convenient such as Google Home. This device makes daily tasks such as playing music and turning off lights accessible through speech and not having to actually perform the task. Smartphones have a built in tracker for heart rate, blood pressure, activity levels but also records how much screen time we under go daily and also what applications we use most and what we search up.
This can be beneficial for many reasons including assisting businesses with their marketing strategies. Through the algorithms implemented in all applications and websites, data on what an individual is interested can be provided to the business based on that person's private conversation and searches.
There are several benefits to the advancement of this technology. However, it can act as a double-edge sword on our lives. As mentioned in Professor. Elovici's TedTalk about the Internet of Things, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgoX_m6Mkko, this advancement in technology can be an invasion of privacy within our society. In today's day and age, every single detail of a person's life is recorded and uploaded to this cloud. This allows the government and whoever has access to the cloud to read into every personal conversation or understand patterns of an individuals every day life. This can be especially dangerous if hacked. Hackers with access to this information can target certain people and have a strong potential to invade their privacy and commit crimes such as stalking and theft.
There are both positives and negatives. However, the Internet of Things would be less controversial if users had full control over what information went to the cloud. What are your thoughts about this? Comment below.
As technology evolves there will always be a good side to it and always a negative side to it as it'll make things more convenient as it evolves but due to the negative of "Hackers" it gives people a reason to not want their information gathered by companies. In the end it is inevitable that your information will be somewhere and that Hackers will always be out there trying to breach these companies and steal data.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't have stated that better myself. There is always going to be a risk with the internet because of Hackers. Nothing in the world is ever perfect and there isn't anything that you can do without a risk. The internet would be a much safer place without Hackers, however, having preventative measures against hackers will definitely be useful.
DeleteI am heavily against the 'cloud'. There has been so many breaches and hacks of these 'clouds' as it provides personaly data for these hackers. Especially it being so common, you'd get approximately a hack or two that we know of a year. What is to say that they can get hacked everyday but we are only told by major hacks?
ReplyDeleteI agree and the safety of the cloud can only be controlled a certain amount by us users. The people who created the cloud have the responsibility to stop hackers and keep our information safe, yet has failed to show that the cloud is a bulletproof method.
DeleteInsightful post! I think the cloud is a very convenient way that allows for easier access as well as assisting with other strategies. However, I do agree that there needs to be more firewalls and successful mitigation of risks, as well as better education with consumers regarding these tasks
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Krystal. I definitely agree with you. People aren't as educated about these risks as they should be. Having an educational class in schools would definitely be beneficial as the internet is something that is going to be around forever and safety and safe use of the internet is definitely something that all of us need to learn.
DeleteThe cloud is a convenient and easy way people for people to store their data and access it without trouble and without taking up their phone/computer space. I mainly use the cloud to store photos and to save space on my phone, unfortunately it comes with the risks of hackers accessing personal data. However, with the rapid development in technology, there is bound to be a safer way for people to store their data.
ReplyDeleteYes for sure, the cloud is a great place to save photos because it can be easily accessed. Being able to access it from several devices and mitigating the need to transfer photos over to different devices time and time again is beneficial. As long as there isn't anything that you want to be leaked on your cloud, it should be safe.
DeleteTechnology is constantly evolving and made to be more convenient for us to use and adapt to. I personally have not used the cloud yet because I'm more concerned of the risks. Although the cloud can help store personal data to be more accessible instead of using things such as USBs, breaches can happen. Personal data can then be taken as easily as it is to upload to the cloud. If we had more control and certainty that our personal data are safe, then I would definitely use the cloud.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Jenn. It is definitely something that I would want more of. Control over my own cloud. There are just too many ways that Hackers can bypass the firewalls to access peoples clouds which makes me have trust issues and prefer not to use it as well.
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