IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 29

be repurposed by the companies
who collected it, or sold on to third
parties, and the user does not have
control over this, or in some cases
even knowledge of it. Any precaution implemented at the user end
can only limit the amount of data
collected. For proper security, and
privacy, these issues need to be
addressed by the manufacturers of
smart devices and the designers of
their interfaces.
In a smart home scenario, instead
of having to rely on the user to check
the security level of the smart devices in their home, the onus should be
on the manufacturer. Value sensitive
design [15] and design contractualism [16] are ways to protect users
from unwanted consequences of
using technology. GDPR is an example of ensuring data users and manufacturers of technology implement
privacy by design, and it goes some
way towards data security. What is
needed however is a level above
this. Ethical designs with the user's
best interest in mind are needed
- avoiding dark patterns and offering users simple straightforward
options for their security (and privacy). Without regulation to this effect,
it is unlikely any commercial organization would adhere to these ethical
designs if they went against the
company's interests. For example,
if a commercial organization needed, or wanted, extra data for testing
new algorithms or for user profiling, they will not to be designing
technology that allows users privacy and security by default. The
Facebook example is typical of the
way a company might adhere to the
letter of the GDPR law, but not the
spirit of it. More stringent regulation
is therefore needed.

MARCH 2020

Manufacturers need to put their
users first and consider how secure
their devices are - not just in terms
of encryption or pseudonymization
when necessary, but always. Devices need to be designed with the concept of security in mind, to answer
not just the question "Can someone
be identified by this data?" but "Can
this data be accessed?" and "Would
the user want to share this data?"
Given the speed and diversity of
technology development, it is not
always immediately obvious what
purposes seemingly innocuous
data can be used for in the future.
It is necessary to discuss and implement safeguards to protect users
today from the potential threats
of tomorrow.

Acknowledgment
A shorter version of this article
appeared on the GHOST blog [17].
The author is funded by EU Grant
Agreement number GA-740923.

Author Information
Kristina Milanovic is with Imperial
College London, United Kingdom.
Email: km908@ic.ac.uk.

References

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020

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