Smart home for lawyers: IoT in the home and its implications for the GDPR

The IoT is "A network of items – each embedded with sensors – which are connected to the Internet"2 and function thanks to the collection and communication of data. It revolves around the idea that everything can communicate every time and everywhere, in a "ubiquitous network".3 Today, companies market as 'smart' IoT products that are intelligent.4 Thanks to machine learning, they can talk (voice assistants), change the environmental conditions (lamps and thermostats) and personalise their responses to each user. Today's smart devices (hereinafter also indicated with IoTs) are consumer products whose essence not only lies in their interconnectivity but also in their sophisticated learning and personalisation. Smart devices reach their highest functionality in the smart home, where many traditional appliances are replaced with IoTs. Popular smart home devices are: TVs, thermostats, voice assistants, lightbulbs and switches. However, the sector continues to grow rapi...

Verder in dit artikel:

1. Home, Smart Home, and Privacy

2. Article 5 and the fundamental principles

2.1. Lawfulness

2.2. Purpose Limitation

2.3. Data Minimisation

2.4. Storage Limitation

2.5. Article 5 and the smart home

3. Controllers and processors in the smart home

3.1. Who are the controllers in the smart home?

4. DPIA

5. Profiling

5.1. The general discipline for profiling

5.2. The special discipline of Article 22 GDPR

5.3. One big decision or many small ones? Article 22 and the smart home

6. Conclusions