So far in this What The Internet of Things Means For You series we’ve looked at how the Internet of Things (when everyday objects are connected to the Web) will affect marketers and accountants. Some of the comments on those posts have requested that we look at the effect on consumers – i.e. all of us. Normally when discussing this topic in relation to consumers, two big issues rear their heads: privacy and security. So we’ll focus specifically on those two issues here.

One of the key aspects of the Internet of Things is the sheer volume of data it will introduce into the Web – and not just any data, but often very personal data.

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Let’s use the oft-quoted example of RFID in grocery stores. When this particular dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view) becomes a reality, you will be able to do your groceries with the aid of RFID tags on the food items and RFID readers in your mobile phone or credit card. On the plus side, this will make the shopping process more efficient and transparent. For example you can do comparative analysis of food items on the fly. Plus there’ll be no need for check-out, as everything will be automatically recorded against your mobile phone or credit card as you put it in your shopping cart.

The potential ‘dark side’ of this scenario is that at least two players in the retail chain will gather a lot of data about your precise shopping habits: the grocery store and the mobile phone and/or credit card company. Who knows what they will do with that data, right? Also who knows how secure it will be. Our own Dana Oshiro described the RFID chip as "the internet underground’s bubonic plague" in her post about the demise of consumer RFID company Violet this week.

A recent Wired UK article (hat-tip John Simpson for the link) summarized the dangers of this type of scenario:

"How naked will your personal preferences be to advertisers when your entire digital-TV remote-control clickstream is merged with your web-browsing history, your storecard and email data, records of all your movements via face-recognition cameras and radio frequency identification tags, and maps of your mobile phone’s signals? Even if you are determined to resist such data-led manipulation of your deepest desires, how do you know that this vast pool of information will not leak out or be used against your own interests, perhaps by a health insurer or a future employer?"

One person who is actively campaigning against RFID in supermarkets is Katherine Albrecht, who runs a site called CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering). It describes itself as "a national grass-roots consumer group dedicated to fighting supermarket "loyalty" or frequent shopper cards," but RFID is also on its radar.

Albrecht wrote an article in 2002 that warned against the dangers of RFID, which she termed "the worst thing that ever happened to consumer privacy." As is typical with RFID predictions, many of the timelines mentioned in Albrecht’s article have failed to pan out ("these tiny tags, predicted by some to cost less than 1 cent each by 2004…" Yeah right). However the warnings are still relevant, if a little scare-mongering:

"Though many RFID proponents appear focused on inventory and supply chain efficiency, others are developing financial and consumer applications that, if adopted, will have chilling effects on consumers’ ability to escape the oppressive surveillance of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers. Of course, government and law enforcement will be quick to use the technology to keep tabs on citizens, as well."

There’s no evidence to suggest that the effects will be "chilling" or that marketers will be "oppressive," however it’s certainly a good idea for us consumers to be wary about privacy and security issues. You can also read Katherine Albrecht on the spychips website (hat-tip to ReadWriteWeb reader Gene Becker for pointing out Albrecht’s work).

Personally I believe that RFID, and Internet of Things in general (RFID is just an enabling technology), will bring more good than bad. The work of Albrecht and others will help to police retailers and governments, to ensure appropriate privacy and security rules are put in place. But these technologies are coming, whether we like them or not, because they are simply more efficient and offer much more functionality – for consumers, marketers, retailers alike. Let us know your opinion in the comments.

Flickr photo credits: cbmd; Manuel Monroy Correa; Touchatag

See also: Consumer Electronics 2.0: MIT’s Henry Holtzman on The Internet of Things

Discuss

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Should Consumers Fear The Internet of Things?

The newly-formed Pirate Party UK wants to see sweeping changes to Britain’s copyright and patenting laws, as well as promoting freedom from excessive electronic surveillance.

Britain’s Pirate Partywas registered by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday and currently has around 250 active members.

Pirate Party leader Andrew Robinson noted that the recent Digital Britain report suggested a L50,000 fine for sharing files, noting that this could potentially apply to the seven million or so regular file-sharers in the UK.

“You’re branding a huge percentage of this population criminals for doing something that doesn’t have any proven implications,” Robinson told PC Pro. “It’s a ridiculous state of affairs. People who copy a movie are lumped in with people who steal cars.”

Copyright changes

Robinson is quick to point out that the Pirate Party is not “in favour of abolishing copyright, or artists getting nothing,” merely arguing that, “when things are copied and somebody makes a profit, that profit should go to the artist.”

He adds that Britain’s “copyright law is horribly outdated and it’s skewed one way because all the lobbying is on the side of big businesses.”

Which is also closely related to the Pirate Party’s stance on patents, which they see as having “moved away from a way of encouraging invention to being a way for companies to lay claim to large areas of innovation.

“The Toyota Prius is an example of this. There’s 2,000 patents covering the Prius, which isn’t encouraging other companies to create environmentally cars, it’s blocking them.”

Robinson and his colleagues are still unsure about naming themselves the “Pirate Party” saying that they have “had the name foisted on us by the Swedish party, but it’s difficult….we need to point out that we’re saying very sensible things, while the industry lobby is labelling us as pirates.”

“I’ve set an internal target of us retaining one deposit [in the next general election]. That’s our measure of success,” adds Robinson. “What we really want to do is raise awareness, so that the other parties say ‘bloody hell, they’ve got seven million votes this time out’, or one million votes, or enough votes to make them care and seriously think about these issues.”

The party wants copyright on works to be reduced from the life of the owner plus 70 years to something less. They are also concerned with issues of deep packet inspection and surveillance with Robinsonname-checking technologies such as Google Street View and Phorm.

“We’re saying there needs to be a set of laws to handle technology such as Phorm and Street View,” he argues.

Currently there are 24 Pirate Party groups worldwide.

Related Links

• The Pirate Party UK

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Pirate Party slams surveillance Britain

Twitter has officially announced a project to integrate ‘retweeting’ functionality into its microblogging platform.

Although RT or retweeting other people’s comments is a fundamental reason for Twitter’s success, the Twitter site does not make the process easy.

On the site, people have to retweet manually by copying and pasting a tweet and adding the letters RT to the start – or, more commonly, drift to a third-party twitter client which makes the process easier.

However Project Retweet marks the company’s move into making retweeting much easier.

New look

Now, people will see retweets in a different way in their Twitter feed, be able to quickly retweet their friends’ and followers’ comments and even show who has retweeted that comment.

It’s a big project, apparently, and one that has surely been on the cards for a long time.

“We are still sketching out exactly how this feature and its API counterpart works, said co-founder Ev Williams on the company’s blog.

“Sharing our thoughts before launching means developers will have the opportunity to prepare their applications.

“In a few weeks or so we’ll launch the feature on our web site and because app developers had a chance to prepare, it should become available across most of the Twitter ecosystem about the same time. This way, we can all enjoy retweeting—however we choose to access Twitter.”

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Twitter to make retweeting easier

TV viewers of a certain age that fondly remember pint-sized Gary Coleman in the 1980s classic Diff’rent Strokes will surely be no less than thrilled at the fact that he is now the star of his own augmented reality Facebook fortune-telling app.

What better way to celebrate the fact that it is Friday, than sending your friends an augmented reality Gary Coleman fortune-telling app?

Augmented reality allows developers to overlay information or 3D graphics over a live camera feed. It has been getting a lot of attention from iPhone developers in particular of late, such as the innovative Brit outfit AcrossAir.

Coleman gets the augmented reality Facebook app courtesy of French fry vendor New York Fries in order to celebrate its 25th anniversary this month.

How does it work?

Users have to download and print off a graphic, then hold it up to their webcam, where a magical 3D version of Coleman will appear to tell yours and your mates’ fortunes.

A strangely beguiling way of advertising chips, TechRadar is sure you will agree!

Go on! It’s Friday.

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Augmented reality Gary Coleman fortune-teller launched

So, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Qik for iPhone 3GS is now available, and it’s completely gratis to download. The bad news is that it probably won’t do exactly what you want it to. You see, those on Symbian S60 have grown used to a Qik that can actually stream live video to the internet, whereas this app is currently just a “capture and upload” piece. Moreover, it only works via WiFi, so if you’re not near a hotspot once your video is done, you’ll have to wait until you wander back over to one before it automatically begins uploading. Though, you can let the app automatically inform viewers of where the video was taken (in case you feel like pampering guests who show up unannounced), and you can also frame the video horizontally or vertically. The Qik team assures us that an update is in the works to add 3G uploading, but for now, it’s WiFi or bust. Which is kosher so long as it’s free… we guess.

[Thanks, Jackie]

Qik for iPhone 3GS now available, still not capable of live 3G streaming originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:41:00 EST..

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Qik for iPhone 3GS now available, still not capable of live 3G streaming

Radiohead’s frontman Thom Yorke announced that the band will no longer release full-length studio albums and instead focus on downloadable singles. In response, Fast Company’s Kit Eaton, declared that the concept of albums is still alive and simply evolving. Part of that evolution is Apple’s Cocktail interactive album effort. He argues that albums maintain their purpose to communicate musical themes, “the same way that a curated collection of a painter’s works does”. Nevertheless, it may be that in some cases, the album will thrive for the exact opposite reasons.

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While Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” was an amazing success both as an album and as a new sliding scale revenue model, Yorke and band mates are poised to focus on singles, and for them this is great. Radiohead has a loyal fan base, enough money to survive, and the freedom to negotiate independent licensing and distribution deals. Basically, Radiohead can do whatever Radiohead wants to do. But perhaps more importantly, the band has the creative freedom to experiment – in fact, their fans expect it.

With the cost of professional music production and audio engineers, few bands have the luxury to put out experimental singles on major labels. Labels simply won’t put marketing dollars into something they aren’t sure is commercially viable. Albums are the perfect place to sandwich those sweetheart orphan tracks that artists love and labels simply can’t classify. In the past, an album’s B-side was a place where musicians could debut new styles and place less-commercial tracks. However, as music downloads outnumber physical disc sales, and singles outsell albums, the margin for risk taking gets smaller everyday.

For this reason, whether wrapped in interactive material or not, it’s likely that a number of musicians will insist on producing albums simply to leverage marketing efforts and challenge their fans.

Photo Credit: Taken from Radiohead’s Dead Air Space