How To Protect Consumers From IoT Vulnerabilities? The FTC Weighs In 

The March edition of the PYMNTS.com Internet of Things Tracker, Sponsored by Intel, we bring you the latest news and trends, along with the addition of 10 new provider profiles — now totaling 51 companies.

Adapting for the unknown

For this month’s cover story, PYMNTS caught up with Terrell McSweeny, the Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, following her Innovation Project roundtable last week, to talk about IoT and how the FTC’s mission — namely, to protect consumers — is extending into the space. 

Here’s a sneak peek: 

The role of the FTC when it comes to IoT, McSweeny said, is to “protect consumers from bad consequences of being tricked or unavoidable bad security practices.” Although consumers can do their homework, she said, by trying to understand a product from its website or reading Consumer Reports or other reviews, it’s not possible for a consumer to become completely knowledgeable, especially when attempting to research products that are so new.

“You can’t know, if you’re a consumer, what the data security practices are of a company,” McSweeny said. “You have to assume that they’re good, because how are you going to figure that out?” The FTC’s role, she said, is to figure it out for the consumer. And to do that, they are studying the industry and, she said, “We also engage in the conversation around what choices, what context, how transparent do you need to be with consumers about how your information is being used?” To demonstrate her point, McSweeny turned to the example of mapping apps. “Do consumers like the convenience of using a mapping app that knows location information and everybody else’s so you can understand where the traffic jams are? Absolutely. And, I think, they are willing to trade their data. I think the question then becomes, how much do they need to know about where that data will end up?”

To download the March edition of the PYMNTS.com Internet of Things Tracker, sponsored by Intel, click the button below.