Data rights in the consumer Internet of Things

As consumer IoT products are intended to be used in domestic settings, there is real potential for such devices to capture personal and sensitive information about people's actions, behaviours, preferences, and interactions. It follows that the consumer Internet of Things (IoT) raises data protection considerations. However, at present, the nature of the data processing practices within consumer IoT ecosystems is largely opaque. This paper describes some outcomes from multidisciplinary work that attempted to shed light on IoT processing practices through the technical monitoring of IoT device transmissions, and using rights under data protection law. In this paper, we illustrate the ongoing transparency challenges of the consumer IoT and emphasise the need for more attention to be brought to individual rights in this context.