Privacy integral to future of the Internet of Things

[Commentary] As the Internet of Things steamrolls from tech novelty to entrenched reality, privacy concerns will mushroom surrounding the personal data generated by devices on our bodies and in our homes.

And now, it seems, is a critical inflection point, according to those gathered at the Internet of Things Privacy Summit, the first such Silicon Valley confab organized by data privacy management company TRUSTe.

The cynical view is that corporations focused on profit will minimize privacy issues if they get in the way of a growing bottom line. But Michelle Dennedy, chief privacy officer at security software firm McAfee, and others caution that approach risks a consumer backlash.

"In almost any segment it's a very competitive market out there, consumers have a lot of choices," she says.

Ultimately, the privacy debate boils down to "whether we as consumers are willing to surrender privacy for convenience, which is dangerous considering the tempting opportunity for the abuse of such private information," says Jana Anderson of The Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University.

There seemed to be two conclusions from the day's events in Silicon Valley. One, the Internet of Things is coming, and with it a growing need for consumers and corporations alike to address its attendant privacy issues. And two, worrying about our online privacy is nothing new.