2019/10/22 by Seng W. Loke, Loke, Seng W.
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Blockchain Technology Applications and Security #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI #FOS: Computer and information sciences #IoT and Edge/Fog Computing
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1910.10241
openalex publication_date 2019/10/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Internet-of-Things is emerging as a vast inter-connected space of devices\nand things surrounding people, many of which are increasingly capable of\nautonomous action, from automatically sending data to cloud servers for\nanalysis, changing the behaviour of smart objects, to changing the physical\nenvironment. A wide range of ethical concerns has arisen in their usage and\ndevelopment in recent years. Such concerns are exacerbated by the increasing\nautonomy given to connected things. This paper reviews, via examples, the\nlandscape of ethical issues, and some recent approaches to address these\nissues, concerning connected things behaving autonomously, as part of the\nInternet-of-Things. We consider ethical issues in relation to device operations\nand accompanying algorithms. Examples of concerns include unsecured consumer\ndevices, data collection with health related Internet-of-Things, hackable\nvehicles and behaviour of autonomous vehicles in dilemma situations,\naccountability with Internet-of-Things systems, algorithmic bias, uncontrolled\ncooperation among things, and automation affecting user choice and control.\nCurrent ideas towards addressing a range of ethical concerns are reviewed and\ncompared, including programming ethical behaviour, whitebox algorithms,\nblackbox validation, algorithmic social contracts, enveloping IoT systems, and\nguidelines and code of ethics for IoT developers - a suggestion from the\nanalysis is that a multi-pronged approach could be useful, based on the context\nof operation and deployment.\n