The IoT Challenge for Local Governments as Data Stewards
The ‘Internet of Things,’ (IoT) is all around us, every day and everywhere. The boardroom, courtroom, classroom, and coffee shop; wherever you go, people are sporting a smart watch they use as a phone, tracking their activity level with a bracelet, or even using a prescription bottle cap that reminds them when it’s time to their medication. The uses across industries and sectors are seemingly endless and increasingly, local governments are taking notice and beginning to explore how they too might benefit.
Sensing, communicating, computing, controlling and informing are essentially what makes an IoT an IoT; the ability to have devices that connect to networks and generate data is the difference between an ordinary, run-of-the-mill device and something with the potential to be truly transformative. IoT networks are made up of multiple complex systems working together, and in these networks, different system components are often designed and managed by different entities. The data generated from these 21st century devices travels from the device itself over networks, to be processed and used for a variety of purposes, sometimes even for critical decision making. IoT devices are part of a “Cyber-Physical System,” defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as “’smart’ systems that are co-engineered interacting networks of physical and computational components.” And, as with any new technology, the IoT network and any cyber-physical system brings a new set of challenges that government leaders must be aware of as they consider how best to deploy such systems. They must consider that what is technically possible, may not be organizationally feasible or socially or politically desirable. The potential benefits of IoTs need to be matched by equally persuasive cautions about citizen privacy and greater vulnerability to malicious cyber-attacks, among others. Government’s efforts to innovate with technology to provide public value should be balanced with the commitment to be good stewards of the public’s data.
The big question local governments need to be asking themselves, is “are we prepared to steward the public’s data in the context of IoT?” While there are some exceptions, we suspect that in many cases, the answer to that question is “no.” Technology has evolved faster than the organizations trying to use them, and public policies lag farther still behind organizational change. IoTs represent a new type of technology that, except in a few cases such as in New York City, is quickly outpacing the range of government structures and policies being used to manage IT investments as well as data collected. All governments considering the IoT, in particular local governments who are already struggling with data stewardship responsibilities, should carefully consider the following three issues.
IoT data ownership is conflated by the mix of vendors needed to deploy and support an IoT network. Several models exist to finance, maintain and support an IoT network, and IoT devices can be purchased or paid for as a service. It’s in this type of “IoT as a service model,” that data ownership can become less clear, similar to how data in cloud computing services raises concern of data ownership and appropriate access. Different components or sections of the IoT network may be operated by different partners, each with their own interests. When IoT devices, communication networks, analytical tools, and storage systems are run as a service, the ‘Terms of Service’ agreements with the IoT system vendors may claim that they have both data ownership and use. And, when data from multiple sources and devices are combined and aggregated, it results in new types of data being created, making it difficult to identify the original source of specific data sets.
