Emerging Social and Legal Issues of the Internet of Things

Abstract

The advent of internet represents a revolution for the contemporary era, having brought about a striking series of changes in social, institutional, political, and economic life. This ongoing revolution has spread and absorbed within itself all the problems related to its own development. Objects become recognizable and acquire intelligence in that they are able to communicate data regarding themselves and also access other information aggregated by other devices. They are able to participate in a dialogue and interact among themselves within electronic communication networks without human intervention. All objects can acquire an active role thanks to connection with the web. The associated problems, which can no longer be ignored, draw attention above all to the lack of data control, which is to the vast extent of the data collected and more generally to the security of these data. This chapter has the aim of analyzing the ways in which European legislators, and consequently also Italian representatives, have intervened in order to stem the tide of emerging issues.