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Does Your Company Need an IOT Check-Up?

By William Vogeler, Esq. on April 16, 2019

Security cameras, smart locks, and other internet-enabled devices are a great thing. But what about privacy rights?

It's especially an issue in the age of the Internet of Things. When a fish tank thermometer can be used to spy on your company, you know you're in deep. So if you haven't reviewed your privacy policy lately, it's about time to include an IoT privacy check.

You can start with the device you are using right now.

IoT Check-Up

The thing is, IoT devices are multiplying like robot rabbits. By 2021, the market for internet-enabled devices is expected to double. According to reports, they already outnumber the human population.

Companies have many reasons to take note. Employees, customers, or others may have a privacy problem with your devices. Start by checking:

You have to look at them like a plaintiff's attorney, searching for causes of action. Is there a possibility that your company is violating privacy rights? A California hospital didn't think so -- until it was sued for recording women in delivery rooms. Security cameras were intended to catch employees suspected of stealing drugs, but the video caught women in compromising positions.

Big Brother Wants You

In California and South Carolina, police have reacted to an increase in smart security cameras by inviting people to connect to a virtual grid. Homeowners and businesses in the program allow police to use their cameras for crime-fighting.

It sounds like a good-guy idea, until someone in your organization commits a crime -- like spying on people. Now your smart device is your worst enemy. Alexa, the voice of Amazon's smart tech, became the poster robot-child for that after she was subpoenaed as a possible witness against her owner in a homicide.

Alexa was listening. Are you?

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