The "Internet Of Things" – Is Legislation Coming?

On January 27, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") issued a 71-page report on the Internet of Things ("IoT"), the vast – and explosively growing – universe of interconnected devices that can collect information and communicate with other devices to make our lives easier. The IoT includes over 25 billion connected devices worldwide, including fitness trackers, Wi-Fi connected appliances, and more, and this number is only growing. In fact, estimates are that by 2020 – only five years from today – between 50 billion and 75 billion devices will exist in the IoT.

The FTC report was drafted after a November 2013 workshop hosted by the FTC, where participants discussed benefits and risks of the IoT, as well as how current best practices (including the Fair Information Practice Principles ("FIPPS")) could apply to the IoT, specifically IoT devices used by individual consumers. Despite their significant benefits, connected devices raise numerous privacy and security