Data Protection Compliance Regulations and Implications for Smart Factories of the Future

Context-aware systems in intelligent environments digest large amounts of data and personal information to gain situational awareness as a way to assist individuals with their daily activities, enhance their experiences and adapt to their needs and intention, whenever and wherever they are. Large amounts of data drive these environments, motivating the adoption of big data and cloud technologies. A similar digital transformation is taking place in the Factory of the Future and Industry 4.0, two paradigms on creating smart products through smart processes and procedures. As the attack surface for security and privacy threats grows, it is no surprise that new regulations and directives will be put in place to protect the privacy of individuals. In this paper, we discuss the foundational principles of Privacy by Design and key obligations of the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and highlight how they impact the design and development of context-aware intelligent environments. We provide technical guidelines for better compliance with these regulatory frameworks.