Future networked society raises privacy concerns

Imagine things like doorknobs, toasters and light bulbs communicating with one another in a network that far exceeds anything we know today. The concept, often referred to as ubiquitous computing, isn't new. What's new is that technologies are now emerging to make it happen sooner than many of us imagine.

That is the key message of a report 'The Internet of Things', which was presented recently at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia.

While ubiquitous computing – as a concept – seems attractive, in practice it may spawn some real challenges.

One of these has to do with its potential impact on privacy.

Ubiquitous computing technologies may not necessarily be good for society, in general, according to David Fewer, staff counsel for the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), a public interest advocacy group based in Ottawa.

For one, Fewer said, the ability of such technologies to gather and record information on people could potentially compromise a citizen's expectation of and right to privacy.

"Privacy and anonymity have values in and to themselves. There are lots of reasons why we should be concerned about ubiquitous surveillance and the disappearance of private activities in a networked world," he said.

In such a networked world – says the WSIS report – four key technologies will enable ubiquitous network connectivity: RFID (radio frequency identification) tags, sensor, embedded intelligence and nanotechnology.

Some of these technologies have very practical uses.

For instance, clothes embedded with chips will communicate with sensor-equipped washing machines about colors and their suitable washing temperatures, and bags will remind their owners they have forgotten something.

The result will be billions of new Internet "users" in the form of objects that will push humans into the minority as generators and receivers of Net traffic.

"There are challenges, such as standards and governance of these resources, but we're moving toward a world in which the many things around us will soon be communicating with each other without any interaction from us," said Lara Srivastava, telecommunications policy analyst at the International Telecommunication Union, based in Geneva, Switzerland.