This week, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Google, Eric Schmidt, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, suggested that in the future the Internet will be everywhere and nowhere - it will be embedded in everything with which we interact.



“The Internet will disappear,” he predicted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter magazine . “There will be so many IP addresses ... so many devices, sensors and sensors you interact with, that they will become part of your life. Imagine that you are entering a dynamic room in which all things work on your team. ”





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This forecast does not look so ridiculous, given the growth statistics of connected devices . Last year, the number of "smart" things was close to 3.8 billion, this year the projected amount is 4.9 billion, and by 2020, it will grow to 25 billion.



Google already has Nest , a manufacturer of connected devices for the home, such as fire alarms and an intelligent thermostat . Nest, in turn, owns Dropcam , a manufacturer of monitoring Wi-Fi cameras for the home. Mountain View has bet on the "smart home", which is connected by a sensor system with a "smart car".



Another of the incredible (who knows ...) predictions of the “connected future”, voiced in Davos, the group of the Harvard professor was the scenario where robots-mosquitoes steal our DNA samples, as reported by Mail Online . “Personal life, as it was, is no longer possible,” said Margot Seltzer, a professor of computer technology. - “Relatively speaking, private life is dead.”



In fact, as Seltzer later said, there is no need for mosquito robots to violate our privacy. The tipping point, which is eroding privacy, has already come - with the current development of digital technologies, not to mention such a futuristic technology as mosquito robots.



“The idea is that we do not need all-seeing sensors to make such scenarios come true. We are already leaving a huge digital footprint using our everyday technologies: credit and debit cards, web pages, roads, highways, social networks and email, ”she said. Seltzer does not advocate giving up his private life, as it seemed after reading the Mail Online article. She considers it important to regulate the use and storage of data, instead of abandoning any technology.



“Technology is a tool, it is neither good nor bad. A hammer is a useful tool for hammering nails, but this does not mean that someone cannot use it for killing. We have laws prohibiting killing without specifying at the same time what tool to kill is prohibited. In the same way, we need laws on the use of data, but not on the use of technology, ”the professor added.

With your permission

From the whole Schmidt speech in Davos, it is necessary to single out that this invisible, comprehensive network of sensors will turn on its networks with your permission. Perhaps these words were addressed to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Edith Ramirez, who at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) expressed concern about the security and privacy of the Internet of Things.



“The Internet of Things has tremendous potential and a lot of benefits for consumers, but it can also have terrible consequences for security and privacy,” she said. - “Smart devices increase convenience and improve medical care, as well as the collection, transmission and storage of data about consumers of goods, some of which can be very personal, thereby creating a number of risks to privacy.”



Ramirez said that without business support in optimizing the data collected, for example, collecting only the necessary data, and not all in a row, the risks to privacy can be enormous. The problem is that we cannot achieve such strict standards of confidentiality on the current Internet, not to mention a distributed network of sensors in which there is not a single uncontrolled point in our life. At present, the Internet or mobile Internet, as a last resort, can be turned off by the user if he turns off the router or the phone (and puts it in the fridge if he has paranoia after Snowden).



But one day, the spread of the network of sensors will reach that critical point, when without its help we cannot just give up. Unless we have some kind of regulator that can ensure privacy and consumer rights. Without such a consumer-oriented control method, the user actually loses the ability to perceive himself offline, and given that the main control method in devices to this day is an on / off switch, it must be built into all utilities, in every part of this magnificent, the all-consuming Internet of Things.



In parallel with the rapid development of the Internet of Things, it is necessary to reach a new level in automation and autonomy of devices, taking into account the emergence of a dense network of network objects, as well as taking into account the risks of reducing control by the user. Smart devices will gather information, communicate with each other in the cloud, intertwining, form unique utilities, as Schmidt obviously believes. But such tools, ultimately, will form a more complete picture of the actions and intentions of people in real life. And this data should be well protected by privacy laws.



Early generations of digital technologies, such as e-mail, did not have reliable protection. Therefore, there are stories, such as with Snowden, in which the special services of the military-industrial complex remain in the cold. Now imagine the scale of the tragedy on the Internet of Things, which is simultaneously everywhere, but nowhere, which is invisible to the user, but knows more about him than himself, who cannot be resisted or properly controlled.





All disputes about the security of encrypted applications - dust in your eyes. The Internet of Things will let you control you anyway. - Dean Bubley



It is on the Internet of Things that Schmidt wants to build a Google empire sales strategy. A higher level of data collection on Google users will let you know more about them, and sell more accordingly. So all this Google advertising tinsel is actually a steel core of the business, a money pipe through which you can manage your intentions in real time.



All user information that modern search algorithms know is ridiculous compared to that which can be obtained from a distributed sensor system. The more their devices the user connects to this system, the more complete the picture Google sees about it. (Related: Goggle acquired the company engaged in artificial intelligence company DeepMind - the developer of universal learning algorithms).



The Internet of the future will go into the shadows, as Schmidt believes, but this does not mean that he will not send all his computing power to create a hidden map, with information about us, who we are and what we are doing. Digital future technologies can be a great new marketing tool, but that does not mean that it is inevitable.



As Zeltser says, we should not give up, but should think about how our data are used. We need to think about creating regulators, to understand the extent of the risks to confidentiality associated with the emergence of a dense network of network objects. The primary task of the future strategy is to protect the user and help control the processing of personal data. Without this strategy, there is a risk that the users will not trust the connected device business, their invasive, deeply penetrating products and services. In the very personal sphere of the Internet of Things, user confidence is paramount. Therefore, the creation of a framework for regulating data collection is necessary for all business participants.



In the real world, we have cars and roads. But we also have speed limits. The key to success on the way to a close-packed universe of connected devices are the regulators of the World Wide Web Sensors - a kind of speed limit of the future.