IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2021 - 107

to store sensitive information, pseudonymization,
proper authentication controls, reasonable security
features for consumer data, limited collection and
retention of data, and procedures that promote data
accuracy [63].
Furthermore, this concept is not limited to the
technology itself; privacy and security by design
also emphasizes procedurally sound business practices
throughout organizations, including assigning
personnel to oversee privacy issues and conducting
thorough reviews of new products [63]. Personnel
should start with a security risk assessment, listing
threats, the probability of an attack, and the potential
attack impact [64]. Then, businesses can decide
on appropriate countermeasures and layer their
defenses. The success of these bottom-up designs is
based on an adherence to seven foundational principles:
1) proactive not reactive; 2) privacy as the
default setting; 3) privacy embedded into design;
4) full functionality: positive-sum; 5) end-to-end
security: full lifecycle protection; 6) visibility and
transparency; and 7) respect for user privacy [65].
Weaving privacy and security into the very fabric
of devices, systems, and companies ensures such
protections are crucial objectives at all stages of
product creation and deployment. The NTIA process
could set forth a best practices document for
implementing such privacy by design planning into
all IoT devices.
Second, to further combat security threats like
DDoS attacks, " researchers and government agencies
have emphasized the importance of taking
reasonable steps to design secure products and to
maintain their security with updates that patch vulnerabilities
in the firmware powering IoT devices "
[66]. Crucially, privacy and security by design
processes must incorporate upgradable sensors
in IoT technologies [60]. The lifecycle of an IoT
device will vary greatly and could last for years.
While smart technologies may be sufficiently safe
one minute, they may be extremely vulnerable the
next, due to unaddressed and unpatched technical
flaws, putting privacy at risk by making the devices
easier to compromise or by leaking user information
[60], [62]. Without the ability to be updated
in response to new vulnerabilities, it is difficult to
mitigate devices' security flaws on a large scale.
And, with potentially devastating consequences
for consumers, the benefits of these technologies
could quickly become obsolete. Companies should
December 2021
therefore be directed to incorporate upgradable
software and sensors into their IoT connected systems
to maintain reasonable security [67]. The
standard default norm should be that any device
connected to the Internet must be upgradable to
protect against new security threats.
Third, companies facilitating security and privacy
by design mechanisms will face the challenge of how
to communicate the effectiveness and availability of
such measures to consumers and policymakers. This
problem is not unique to the IoT but is a necessary
one to consider, to foster public trust. Again, many
benefits of the IoT will be foreclosed if consumers
do not trust IoT-connected devices. Consequently,
another important goal of NTIA's multistakeholder
process should be to further promote transparency
on this subject. The group's meetings should be public
and live-streamed, and the proposed privacy and
security best practices document should be flexible
and adaptable to an ever-evolving technological
system [68]. The group should develop a shared set
of definitions and benchmarks to guide the security
and privacy of IoT-collected data [69]. Importantly,
such a process should also provide oversight and
the type of indirect enforcement that will pressure
technology developers to follow sufficiently protective
design practices and to communicate such
practices to the public [68]. This is particularly relevant
to the IoT, given the vast amounts of data that
these devices can collect from consumers and thus
the need to promote decision-making processes surrounding
unbounded data collection [62].
Relatedly, considering that the public's fear of
new technologies stems in part from a mistrust of
when and where their data is being collected and
how it is being used (e.g., as seen in the smart city
context), consumers should be presented with a
choice regarding the collection and sharing of their
data, to the extent practically feasible [70]. It is thus
essential for NTIA's multistakeholder process to
contemplate consumers' opportunities to weigh the
costs and benefits of IoT devices, as encouraging
consumer participation and awareness can foster
innovation and effective use of technology. NTIA
could provide specific mechanisms and options for
consumers to decide what data they want to be collected
and what data should not be collected, and to
give them control how their personal data collected
by IoT devices might be used [70]. Broadly, stakeholders
should undertake rigorous efforts to educate
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2021

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