IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2016 - 89

and virtual robots [5]) for enhanced feedback for the outcomes
of actions. The improved data availability and accuracy, coupled
with database integration capabilities and data mining, enable
fine-tuning of the actions of these systems.

PRIVACY AND ETHICAL ISSUES
The IoT provides a rich capture of personal behavior and
social interaction data, which raises other privacy and ethical
concerns. In current virtual social networks, it is still possible
to construct fake cyber identities, but the use of IoT communication technologies could enable health and physical parameters to be associated with actual physical personal identities.
The rich data and information gathered by IoT systems
will produce valuable practical knowledge. The Internet
world already has a few big players in an unregulated environment. As we have discussed, social networks can be seen
as a source of innovation and knowledge production, potentially generating wealth. Who will own these data and knowledge, and who will use them and for what purpose?

CONCLUSIONS
In this article, we proposed the concept of social affordance
to embody quantitative and qualitative aspects (including
mutual trust) of social connections, and we highlighted the
importance of the social network paradigm as a model for
the evolution of human society. We also introduced the possibility that the technological evolution of social connections
is shifting our social ecosystem from social affordance to
technoaffordance.
Without any advance notice or consent, sophisticated and
powerful sensors could collect data about us, even aspects,
such as the heartbeat or the reaction of the iris on viewing a
showcase or a cake. These data could be used to create new
ways of connecting people with automated software generating networks of people who show similar reactions to the
same objects. In the same way that our level of tolerance
toward a well-established technological device, such as the
telephone, has been altered, so also could social relationships
of the future be changed by new IoT technologies. Friends
might no longer be united by social affordances based on
mutual trust but be connected automatically after being
selected from a group of people who share common traits of
which they may not even be aware.
Finally, one last question: Could an indebted man, many
times the victim of an efficient IoT sales system, sue this
same system for causing his fate?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the Federal University of ABC, São
Paulo State University, the São Paulo Research Foundation, and
the National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development for supporting this research.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Guiou Kobayashi (guiou.kobayashi@ufabc.edu.br) earned his
B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and digital systems

engineering from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is an
associate professor at the Federal University of ABC, Santo
André, Brazil. His research interests include ubiquitous computing, the Internet of Things, and fault-tolerant digital systems. He is currently the chair of the IEEE South Brazil
Section (2015-2016). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Maria Eunice Quilici-Gonzalez (gonzalez@marilia.
unesp.br) earned her B.S. degree in physics and her M.S.
degree in logic and philosophy of science. She earned her
Ph.D. degree in 1989 at the University of Essex, United
Kingdom. She is with São Paulo State University, Brazil.
She is a founding member of the Brazilian Society for Cognitive Science; the Research Group on Cognitive Studies at
São Paulo State University; and the Centre for Logic, Epistemology, and the History of Science Research Group on
Self-Organization at the University of Campinas, Brazil.
She is a Latin American representative of the International
Complex Systems Society.
Mariana Claudia Broens (mbroens@marilia.unesp.br) is
an associate professor of philosophy at São Paulo State University, Brazil. Her research interests include self-organization, common knowledge, embodied embedded cognition,
ecological information, and naturalized ethics. She is a member of the Research Group on Cognitive Studies at São Paulo
State University; the Research Group on Self-Organization at
the University of Campinas, Brazil; the International Society
of Ecological Psychology; and the Complex Systems Society.
José Artur Quilici-Gonzalez (jose.gonzalez@ufabc.edu.br)
earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and
microelectronics engineering from the University of São Paulo,
Brazil. He is an associate professor at the Federal University of
ABC, Santo André, Brazil. His research interests include fieldprogrammable gate arrays, ubiquitous computing, the Internet
of Things, and the ethical implications of new technologies.

REFERENCES
[1] J. J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston:
Houghton-Miffin, 1979.
[2] L. Z. McArthur and R. M. Baron, "Toward an ecological theory of
social perception," Psychol. Rev., vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 215-238, 1983.
[3] A. D. I. Kramer, J. E. Guillory, and J. T. Hancock, "Experimental
evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,"
Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 111, no. 24, 2014.
[4] J. A. Quilici-Gonzalez, M. A. Broens, M. E. Quilici-Gonzalez, and G.
Kobayashi, "Complexity and information technologies: an ethical inquiry
into human autonomous action," Sci. Stud., vol. 12, special ed., 2014.
[5] G. Kobayashi, J. A. Quilici-Gonzalez, M. A. Broens, and M. E. QuiliciGonzalez, "Ubiquity of virtual disguisers and potential impact on ethical behavior," in Proc. The 4th Int. Conf. Ubi-Media Computing, São Paulo, Brazil, 2011.
[6] V. Singh, A. Mani, and A. Pentland, "Social persuasion in online and
physical networks," Proc. IEEE, vol. 102, no. 12, Dec. 2014.
[7] A. Smith, Wealth of Nations. New York: Collier, 1902.
[8] L. Bettencourt, "Impact of changing technology on the evolution of
complex informational networks," Proc. IEEE, vol. 102, no. 12, Dec. 2014.
[9] A. L. Barabási, Linked-The New Science of Networks. New York:
Perseus, 2002.

JULY 2016

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

http://www.unesp.br

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2016