Building Accountability into the Internet of Things

Privacy is a matter of widespread societal concern, which will be further exacerbated by the ongoing effort to connect billions of data-generating devices to the Internet. The promise of large-scale social and economic benefits motivates the development of the Internet of Things. As a primary engine of personal data production in the near future it also carries with it real threats to privacy. Proposed legislation seeks to tackle these threats head-on. This paper seeks to explore principled ways in which systems design might engage with and respond to legal requirements to enable effective data protection and the projected utility of personal data in the digital economy. Key to this is the need to build accountability into the IoT to ensure compliance.