In a ground-breaking development, IoT labels will help consumers with the security and privacy practices of new IoT devices. The finding is an effort of a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University CyLab who developed a prototype security and privacy nutrition label, and has showcased to work well with user tests. The finding is published in the proceedings of the IEEE symposium on Security and Privacy.
Besides this, the team also developed an IoT label generator for manufacturers which will allow them to easily create labels for their devices.
“As per survey results, vast majority of individuals are concerned with security and privacy practices of devices,” said the lead author of the study. The display of information pertaining to security and privacy practices of devices should be concise and understandable, same as nutrition label on food products.
Survey reveals consumers Wary to share Personal Data
Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals a large percentage of participants are uncomfortable with sharing of personal data with third-parties without consent. Of this participating group, ninety-two percent opined it is important for consumers to know when personal data is collected.
Despite this, consumers do not have a clue about the privacy and security policies of devices at the time of purchase.
To throw light on the label, it consists of a primary layer meant to be displayed on the outside of a device’s box. This conveys the most important information pertaining to the type of data the device collect, the purpose of the data, and information of third-party with whom the data is shared.
In the next step, scanning a QR code on the primary layer provides consumers access to secondary layer of the label. This layer provides additional information.