Investigating the Value of Privacy within the Internet of Things

Many companies within the Internet of Things (IoT) sector rely on the personal data of users to deliver and monetize their services, creating a high demand for personal information. A user can be seen as making a series of transactions, each involving the exchange of personal data for a service. In this paper, we argue that privacy can be described quantitatively, using the game- theoretic concept of value of information (VoI), enabling us to assess whether each exchange is an advantageous one for the user. We introduce PrivacyGate, an extension to the Android operating system built for the purpose of studying privacy of IoT transactions. An example study, and its initial results, are provided to illustrate its capabilities.