What is the Internet of Things(IoT)? The term "Things" refers to any physical devices, such as smartphones, wearable devices, lamps, television, headphone and many other things you could think of. Nowadays, these devices are not limited to a specific location and can exist in different places, in office, home, coffee shop, and other places you might not even consider about. IoT is a massive intertwined network that enables these different devices to communicate with each other regardless of their different locations. By means of low-cost and high-efficient automated system, physical things can collect data, analyse it and take action to implement a particular task without too much human intervention. The large scope of IoT generates more opportunities to invent more creative devices along with their responsive interactions. In general, IoT brings devices across different networking types altogether and build a more connected, efficient and smart world.
What is the future of IoT? Security and privacy are big issues that need to be addressed. IoT connects to the Internet, which also suffers from the possibility of being hacked. The amount of data being collected by these devices can be used in secretly evil ways without being noticed. Although product manufacturers have promised to protect the data, customers have no way to find out how they actually do. One study found that over 50% consumers are significantly worried about other organizations might use their data without their permission. It is not surprising though to see how large proportions of people still have trouble trusting the agreement over data protection. I believe that this concern will continually grow so that company needs to seriously treat this issue as one of top priorities when selling IoT devices to consumers. Government might also play a necessary and important role in regulating changes to restore the trust. Meanwhile, customer's growing awareness of IoT security and privacy issue can lead to the emergence of more and more improved products with safety under the competitive marketplace. In the future, customers are able to choose from a wide variety of IoT products with more trust.