THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Fran Wens
E-SKILLS
Table of Contents
What effect will IoT have on our daily lives? .......................................................................................... 2
What difference can governments make to ensure that IoT will be safe and secure and is there a
serious potential threat to governments and states? ............................................................................. 2
Why do we need IoT? .............................................................................................................................. 3
What will happen in terms of job losses and skills as IoT makes devices and robots more intelligent? 4
Who will govern IoT? ............................................................................................................................... 4
Bibliography............................................................................................................................................. 5
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Reflection ................................................................................................................................................ 5

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What effect will IoT have on our daily lives?
The Internet of Things, already has a huge effect on our daily lives and it will keep growing. New
technology develops really fast and you know almost for sure that people are working on a new
internet-connected thing as we speak. Still, the IoT of things is in its first phase. Assuming everything
goes according to plan, it will be a way of living in the world.
Now to focus on how this will actually change our daily lives, well first of all we think of our house. An
intelligent house, programmed to make you life easier. Voice control to turn on the lights, close the
curtains, … Not only our house itself, but also alarm clocks that will be synced with traffic apps,
heating systems that will be linked to external temperature sensors, with the purpose of reducing
costs. Also forgetting your key, won’t be possible ever again, because you will be notified. Car doors
will open as you approach your car and so much more, the list of things keeps on going.
Besides our living environment, IoT will have a huge effect on waste management. For example for
food, the things you don’t consume in your fridge will be recorded and this way you can examine
some trends and patterns. (Manoharan , n.d.)
If we take a look at the effect of the Internet of Things for our personal health, there are some huge
developments. For example 3D-printed wristbands to read your vital signs, being able to track your
sleeping patterns, nutritional balance, notifications for safety reasons alerting you for potential
dangers on the road, bad weather and so on. (ICS Skills, n.d.)
Basically, I could keep listing all kinds of inventions and new internet-connected things, but it’s too
much to sum up. I can conclude that it will have a huge impact on my life as I grow old.

What difference can governments make to ensure that IoT will be safe
and secure and is there a serious potential threat to governments and
states?
It’s very important that the governments have regulations about IoT. If they shouldn’t have
regulations due to uncertainty of technology, then companies won’t want to take action because of
uncertainty about regulations, which would slow down technological adoption and furthermore,
slow down the action of regulators again. This would be a vicious circle. (Morrison , 2017)

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However, it wouldn’t take that long to escape the circle. If government agencies would become user
and developers of IoT as well, the government could guide the IoT towards a safe and responsible
use. This would encourage companies as well, to examine the possibilities of the Internet of Things.
(Ravindranath , 2016)

Now what can the government actually do to make sure it will be safe and secure? First of all what
pops into our mind when thinking about how companies will be able to follow your lifestyle, collect
data of yours and so on, is privacy. So governments should work on strict regulations about an
individual’s privacy. However, this will not be easy then there should be the same regulations all of
over the world, which is not the case. It will be very important that the agencies themselves become
IoT users and infrastructure providers, because it will help them with guiding it to safety and security.
They could become a ‘role model’ so to say. (Mariani , 2017)

Answering the question if IoT is a serious threat to government and states? Yes. A invented name for
the Internet of Things is ‘the Internet of Threats’. Governments and states have reason to be
concerned, because they need to keep improving their ways to protect data, infrastructure, citizens,
…

Why do we need IoT?

There are a lot of reasons why we need IoT and one of them is simply because it makes our lives
easier, but not only that. An example is what would you do if you would have to monitor you home
when you’re away? The solution to this is IoT, you could install some sensors or regulators and
control them with your mobile device. Also for healthcare, technology development is needed. IoT
will make sure, we can monitor our own health more accurately and we could immediately detect if
something would be wrong, which would eliminate death due to discovering the illness too late. I
also think we need it to keep up with everything. Whether we like it or not, technology is booming
and it’s our job to keep up to speed with it, because if you don’t do it now, it will be too late to catch
up.

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What will happen in terms of job losses and skills as IoT makes devices
and robots more intelligent?
There will be two effects of IoT on our current jobs, I think. Inevitably, a lot of jobs will disappear,
replaced by robots. Think about the accountants, watch repairers, dental technicians, maybe even
surgeons and so on… On the other hand however, I also think new jobs will be created to regulate,
work with technology. So it both has advantages and disadvantages for our current jobs. Even
though the robots are coming, it will still take a while until they can completely replace humans. It
also doesn’t mean that when a job can be automated, that it will be automated. It’s still unsure to
say, how drastic robots will replace us, but we do need to look out for it. We can confirm however
that automation and robotics will impact lower-skilled people. (Shewan , 2017) (Jones , 2015)

Who will govern IoT?

As mentioned in one of the previous questions, governing IoT will be crucial and there are several
agencies responsible for this. Agencies like the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal
Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, this being in the US, have authority
over some aspect of the IoT. Governments will of course monitor and regulate it as well, but I do
believe new agencies and policies will need to be set up in order to control it. A lot of governments
set aside money to test this new technology. (Ravindranath , 2016)

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Bibliography
ICS Skills. (n.d.). 5 ways the Internet of Things will affect your daily life. Retrieved from ICS:
https://www.ics.ie/news/view/1729
Jones , M. A. (2015, May 27). Will automation and the Internet of Things lead to mass
unemployment? . Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media-
network/2015/may/27/internet-of-things-automation-unemployment
Manoharan , V. (n.d.). What is IoT? Why do we need it? Significance & impact on modern life?
Retrieved from Prodapt: http://www.prodapt.com/what-is-iot-why-do-we-need-it-
significance-impact-on-modern-life/
Mariani , J. (2017, February 14). Guiding the IoT to safety. Retrieved from Deloitte Insigths:
https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/internet-of-things/regulating-iot-
technology-role-of-government.html
Morrison , M. J. (2017, October 19). Is IoT a threat to national security? Retrieved from Vibrant
Digital Future: https://www.vibrantdigitalfuture.uk/single-post/2017/10/19/Is-IoT-a-threat-
to-national-security
Ravindranath , M. (2016, September 1). Who's in charge of Regulating the Internet of Things? .
Retrieved from Nextgov: http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2016/09/internet-things-
regulating-charge/131208/
Shewan , D. (2017, January 11). Robots will destroy our jobs - and we're not ready for it. Retrieved
from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/11/robots-jobs-
employees-artificial-intelligence

Conclusion
The Internet of Things is super interesting and exciting, yet very dangerous and still unsure. I love the
fact that almost everything will be possible, but to be honest I also think it’s scary that bit by bit,
technology is taking over the world and we don’t know yet how to control it. Being a huge fan of
movies amongst those sci-fi, I have seen many examples where things go wrong with technology and
of course it’s all not real, but it makes you think about how fast this could become reality. I do of
course want to keep up with everything, because in the end it will make our lives better.

Reflection
I thought this was a very interesting assignment, because up until now, I never heard of the term
Internet of Things. Doing research about it, it caught my attention and I think I will check the
developments more often now that I know of them.