Internet of Things – Who owns data collected by smart devices?
You may have heard about the copyright law which states that the ownership of the data goes to the person who created the data. In this case, the data refers to the intellectual properties. But can we apply the same definition to smart devices connected to the Internet? The data goes through many elements before and after their treatment. So exactly who owns the IoT data generated by the machine? We will take a look.
Who does IoT Data belong to?
Does the end user own the IoT data collected by the smart devices you use? Or does the company that created the single table have rights to the data? Does the Single Card Operating System tell you that it will own the data that passes through this smart device (in their "Terms and Conditions") Does the card manufacturer own it? Software developers who program smart devices can, among other things, claim the data collected by smart devices. This is confusing and, to date, there are no clear guidelines as to who owns the IoT data.
The end user
This is the person who uses different smart devices. Since they are smart devices, they are all connected to the Internet. End users can access these devices with the help of the corresponding application on their smartphone or directly by hitting keys on a smart device.
Almost all data in a network is created by the end user. If we applied copyright law to all of this, the end user would be the owner of the IoT data. Unfortunately, copyright does not yet take into account the data of smart devices. At the time of writing this article, there was no law on IoT devices (29 September 2021).
Some laws of the European Union can be extracted from their RPG. These laws emphasize transparency in the use and retention of data. This requires end-users to be informed of how their data will be used, what data has been stored and who is being stored. It's tricky because of the usual terms and conditions that people click on without even reading them. This Terms and Conditions page may contain a clause stating that the end user waives his rights to the data and transfers it to the software developer.
If the smart device has a screen / display, users can study the terms and conditions of use of a device. Most smart devices do not come with a screen, so it's hard to explain the property of the data. In this case, the smart device manual may contain information about the data property. It will take time, however, people are still not bothered by the owner of IoT data!
Smart appliance manufacturers
Entities that manufacture smart devices (single-board microcomputers that can perform certain actions when something happens) are also candidates for data obtained by devices. They created the microcomputers and therefore their claim on the data. However, it is not possible to assign one's rights (end-users) to someone else (the manufacturers) because we do not know where the data will be stored or how it will be used. But there is not much that an end user can do if the hardware manufacturers claim their data without even asking for such permissions.
They contain trackers that bypass users' consent and disagreement to collect data anyway. The data is then sent to third parties affiliated with smart device manufacturers
Software Developers / Applications
Teams creating apps for smart devices can also claim their right to collect data. These are the people who ask you for permission to send information about the use of the application to their servers / data centers. Terms of use may be tricky and you may, without knowing it, waive your rights to the data when you agree to the Terms of Use. The applications on your single-card computer go through a lot of things. From raw data to voice commands, your smart devices know a lot about you. They can keep track of your habits: data that will fetch a fortune if done correctly.
There was this case of Samsung Smart TV listening to all the conversations that were happening nearby. After many negative reactions, Samsung has made clear what you should not talk about near the Smart TV.
This is what Samsung said on the subject.
"If you enable voice recognition, you can interact with your Smart TV with the help of your voice. To provide you with the voice recognition feature, certain voice commands can be transmitted (with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third party service that converts speech into text or to the extent necessary for you provide voice recognition features. .
In addition, Samsung can collect information and your device capture voice commands and associated texts so we can provide you voice recognition features, evaluate them and improve them.
Be aware that if your spoken words contain personal information or other sensitive information, this information will be part of the data captured and passed on to a third party through your use of voice recognition. "
In the above clarification, Samsung appoints a third party that could be a hosted data center anywhere on the planet. A third party can also be a cloud service provider asking the same old question "who owns the IoT data? "
Much remains to be done to normalize data rights. Ideally, it should be the end user (in my opinion), but hardware and software developers are asking for rights to collect your data "so that they can improve their services".