Nowadays, The Internet of things isbecoming a hot topic of conversation. This concept has the power to strongly impacthow we live and work. IoT is a huge network of connected things. It describesa world where nearly anything can be connected and communicate in anintelligent manner.

Introduction

In 1999, the term"Internet of Things" was used by KevinAshton during his work at Procter&Gamble which became widely accepted.Between 2008 and 2009, the Internetof Things was born.

The term Internet of things refers tothe networkof physical devices connected to theInternet and/or to each other, containing electronics and sensors embeddedwithin their architecture for collectingand transmitting data via the Internet.

With the internet of things, the physical world is becoming a significant information system. The goal of the Internet of things is to extend to internet connectivity from standard devices like laptops, smartphones, and IPads to comparatively simpler devices like a lamp or a toaster.

Components of an IoT system

There are four basic components of IoT systems which are involved in the working of IoT. These components are given below:

1. Sensors or Devices: 

Sensors/devices are a key component that assists you incollecting data from the external environment. The data may have many levels ofcomplexities. A device may have differenttypes of sensors which performs multiple tasks otherthan sensing.

For example, a smartphone has multiple sensors like the camerabut the smartphone is not able to sense these things.

• Connectivity: 

All the collected data from the sensors/devices are sentto a cloud infrastructure. It is necessary to connect sensors or devices to thecloud through different communication mediums. These communication mediums couldbe Bluetooth, WI-FI, etc.

• Data Processing: 

After the data is collected and send to the cloud, thesoftware performs processing on the collected data. The data processing can besimple like checking the temperature or can be very complex like identifyingobjects.

• User Interface:

The data is now processed into a piece of usefulinformation. This information needs to be available to the end-user. This canbe done by triggering alarms on the user’s phone or sending him notifications throughemails or/and text messages. The user may want an interface to examine theirIOT system.

For example, if the user has a camera installed in hisoffice and he wants to access its video recording. This can be achieved withthe help of a web server.

Applications of IoT

IoT applications arewidely used in various companies across many industries. Some of these IoTapplications are given below:

• ParkingSensors

With the help of IoT technology, users canlocate the available parking spaces on their phones.

• Activity Trackers

This application of IoT Helps the usersto capture their various fitness-related activities like heart rate patterns,distance walked, and calories consumption.

• SmartOutlets

IoT technologyallows you to remotely turn any device on or off. It also allows you to track theenergy level of a device. You can also get custom notifications on yoursmartphone.

• Smart City

This offers all typesof use cases like traffic management, waste management, water distribution,etc.

Role of IoT in our daily lives

Internet of things isan important part of our daily lives. Following are some aspects that willclarify the importance of IoT in our daily lives.

• Comfort

IoT technologyprovides convenience to us. Our lives are being touched by the IoT. Let us takea few daily lives examples where IoT is providing us convenience:

• Waking up to the sound of our smartphonealarm.
• Ordering food from Amazon.

These examples arekinds of connections that are designed to improve our daily lives.

• MaintainingHealth

Your health analysiscan now be done with the help of Wearable technology that records them to IoT.Blood sugar level, blood pressure, and even skin allergies can now be detectedand prevented with the help of smartphone applications. Such applications fromthe Internet of things are upgrading our lives and proves to be more efficientin maintaining health.

• Safety

IoT providesadvanced safety measures. With the help of IoT, sensors can now be merged intoconstruction materials. You can mix concrete with sensor capability to providedata to the IoT. Many Factors like internal temperature and pressure caninitiate real-time communication with the IoT. With the help of these embeddedsensors in the concrete, issues can be reported to engineers before conditionsbecome severe. 

• Locating lost things:

With the help ofIoT, active communications systems are installed while making suitcases. Thesesystems connect your suitcases to tracking systems that can help you to locatethem. In case you lost your luggage, the systems tell you where your lostluggage is.

Impact of the Internetof things on technology

IoT has greatly revolutionised the whole of technology. IoT becomes immensely important technology because it is the first real evolution of the Internet. It gave so many revolutionary applications that have the capability to improve the way people live and work. IoT has made the Internet sensory (temperature, pressure, vibration, light, moisture, stress) which allows us to become more proactive and less reactive.

ATM was the first IoT objectas far back as 1974. In the few coming years, IoT will do wonders in everyfield of life like business, agriculture etc. By 2020, over 250,000 vehicles will be connected tothe internet. With the IoT, there are limitless opportunities for business.According to estimates, the Internet of Things will add $10-$15 trillion to global GDP in the next 20 years.

IoT has already impacted the technology a lot like patients are using IoTdevices on their own bodies which help doctors to diagnose and determine thecauses of specific diseases, and really small IoT sensors can be placed onplants, animals, and geologic features to gain their specific details which canbe used for their betterment.

Challenges of IoT

Along with various advantages, IoT is faced with many challenges. Someof these are given below:

• Data security andprivacy issues.
• Inadequatetesting and updating.
• Complexity ofsoftware.
• Large Datavolumes.
• Integration withAI and automation.
• Constant powersupply to the devices which is rather difficult.
• Short-rangecommunication.

Considerations and recommendations to combatprivacy risks

Privacy is a bigissue associated with the Internet of thingsas billions of devices being connected together. It is very necessary tounderstand the use of IoT because many IoT devices affect privacy risksdifferently than conventional IT devices.

Considerations

Given below are somePrivacy risk considerations thatorganizations should ensure to address throughout the lifecycle of their IoTdevices as these may affect the management of privacy risks for them.

• Interactions of a device with the Physical World.
• Access, Management, and Monitoring Featuresof a device.
• Availability, efficiency, and effectivenessof privacy capabilities.

These considerations helpyou to mitigate the privacy risk associated with your IoT devices. Thereduction of privacy risks has the following goals:

• To protect device security.
• To protect data security.
• To protect individuals’privacy.

Recommendations

The privacy riskconsiderations may help you to reduce your privacy risks but there are alsomany challenges that you might face while mitigating the privacy risks. Followingare some recommendations to tackle the challenges of privacy risks mitigation.

• Understand privacy risk considerations of the device and the challenges they may cause to reduce the privacy risks.
• Adjust the organizational policies and processes to address the privacy risk mitigation challenges.
• Implement updated mitigation practices.

Guest post by Masoora Syed