Wearable technology will generate more confidential data than ever before. But will it stay secure?
Remember how, just a few years ago, something called “the cloud” was generating a whole lot of buzz? There were competing predictions about where the market was headed, and even over what ‘cloud’ meant. Today, well. . .we all know how it turned out. We know the cloud is where mountains of data on each of us resides, with more going there each day.
Wearable technology is today’s buzzworthy topic. Wearables dominated the hype at CES 2014, with a flood of stories on what’s cool — watches and braces, sensors and lenses, wearable and digestible. Even WIRED has weighed in with a call for business innovators to “surpass the consumer and lead the charge for this new class of devices.”
And there’s more to come: Right around the corner, on March 25-26, is the Wearable Tech Expo in Tokyo, followed by the same show in New York on July 23-24. Analysts estimate the market will reach anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion this year alone.
Of course, unlike cloud computing, wearable technology isn’t new. Even Google Glass is already a year old, and far from a hit. (In fact, there have been documented attacks on consumers sporting the device; just last month, a San Francisco-based writer allegedly drew the wrath of customers at a bar when she was demonstrating what it could do.) And in a nod to its ubiquity, the technology has taken a hit onSaturday Night Live.
But somewhere in all this talk, there’s a critical point getting completely lost.
Every piece of wearable computing that comes down the pike, finds an audience, and gets integrated into our everyday lives, will generate data. Lots and lots of data. The software in the onesie, the chip in the watch, the fitness tracker on the wristband, the heart monitor in the T-shirt, the camera in the headset — these are all destined to become spigots of personal information. Social media is an infant compared to the huge data these channels will generate.
But what’s going to become of it? Where will it go? How secure will it be?
Sure, many of us have become inured to these concerns. We understand that many of our basic functions create data points — every casual Facebook post and retail transaction gives up a precious pieces of personal information. This is how manufacturers and marketers regularly accumulate credit card numbers, account credentials, home addresses and family details. A single Tweet carries with it dozens of metatags. We know all this, and even if we care, we can’t really do much about it.
Still, wearable technologies have the potential to go much, much further.
Most social channels don’t record our sleep patterns — at least not yet. Some of the most popular wearable devices do exactly that. The average mobile app might record what we buy at the grocery store, but it won’t register our actual intake of calories. Again, there are wearable computing offerings that can and will do that. And these are just examples we can already imagine; the best technologies by design change our habits and our tastes, taking us into uncharted territory on a daily basis.
Think about it: Mobile devices and social channels have integrated technology and lifestyle in ways we did not foresee. From banking to cooking, and healthcare to finances, we all do things very differently than we used to. If wearable computing follows these trends — and there’s no reason to think it won’t — then it will help create a treasure trove of information on each of us.
Let’s play out some scenarios. If wearable devices literally tell marketers that your waistline has expanded, could you be targeted with a flood of unwelcome dieting ads? If a woman is pregnant but has not shared the information with anyone else yet, could related junk mail coming to her home tip off everyone else who lives there? (There have allegedly been variations of this occurring already.) Could fitness trackers alert companies about which employees are or are not walking enough?
Sure, many innovations are accompanied by some level of panic. Like every other advance, wearable technologies will greatly benefit our daily lives. There’s tremendous appeal in technologies that are hands-free — a way to use the mobile device without consciously extracting it from the pocket or the handbag, looking down at the screen and jabbing at the keyboard. Done right, these capabilities can positively affect how we do our jobs, make decisions and engage with the world. They can aid our health, our finances and our daily habits, all without any action on our part.
However, as all this information gets generated, stored and collated, it’s incumbent upon every organization to ensure that it stays secure. Whether its retailers seeking to achieve PCI compliance, government agencies looking to protect confidential records or multinational conglomerates running massive multi-tenant private clouds chock-full of consumer information, they need to keep it safe. And as consumers, we should hold their feet to the fire to make them do it.
Eric Chiu is co-founder and president of HyTrust.