Internet of Things and the Implication of Legal Risks and Solutions

Abstract

So far the Internet has been conceived as the network of people connected to one another. Recently, a lot of things works in connection with one another connected via the Internet. Thus this Internet is called Internet of Things(IoT). The things include not only the electronic devices for personal use such as smartphones and notebooks but also the variety of home appliances, cars, airplanes and even the satellite in the space. The things in the IoT are working based upon the most important two technologies, which are Artificial Intelligence and 5G Telecommunication Technology. Though IoT can be defined a bit differently by scholars and institutions, it is a common understanding that AI and 5G Telecommunication are the key elements. On one hand IoT’s capacity to sense, collect, analyze the informations and make decisions in a very high speed and effective way, makes possible the smart home, smart factory, smart city and even the smart government. On the other hand, it may also generate high risk and problems that it makes personal information leak and misused, person’s privacy is invaded, and even the national security can be threatened.
 The goals of benefiting IoT at the same time protecting people from the risks caused by IoT could be achieved through variety of efforts including setting up appropriate policies and enacting rules and regulations. This article addressed the alternative solutions for the achievement of the goals such as making soft laws, implementing governance process, and the application of blockchain. In sum, with all the pros and cons, this article strongly recommends people (including corporations, consumers, and other groups and associations), as the members of the community they belong to, that they adopt their own soft law best fit for their purpose and community environment to regulate themselves first and to make the soft law to regulate the society general as a de facto binding rules. While doing so we may go through the governance process to harmonize the conflicting interests of the constituents of the society and also adopt the new technology such as blockchain to strengthen the practicability of the soft law at the same time.
 Any soft law standards regarding the IoT should be purported to assure individuals that their data will not be misused or hacked, and that they facilitate trust and communication, and avoid the premature and heavy-handed stifling of innovation. Soft law can help these technologies proliferate while giving people the confidence that, contrary to the current belief, the benefits of the IoT far outweigh the risks. Soft law for IoT can be enhanced by convening a multistakeholder process, as one of the public governance process, to develop best practices for protecting the privacy and security of IoT data, including implementing security by blockchain solutions for the IoT.