Security News > 2022 > June > New Privacy Framework for IoT Devices Gives Users Control Over Data Sharing

A newly designed privacy-sensitive architecture aims to enable developers to create smart home apps in a manner that addresses data sharing concerns and puts users in control over their personal information.

Peekaboo operates on the principle of data minimization, which refers to the practice of limiting data collection to only what is required to fulfill a specific purpose.

To achieve this the system requires developers to explicitly declare the relevant data collection behaviors in the form of a manifest file that's then fed into an in-home trusted hub to transmit sensitive data from smart home apps such as smart doorbells on a need-to-know basis.

The hub not only functions as a mediator between raw data from IoT devices and the respective cloud services, it also enables third-party auditors to vet an app developer's data collection claims.

While it is more of a binary approach in Android where apps are either unilaterally allowed or denied access to a specific feature, Peekaboo makes it possible to define the data collection practices - the kind of data to be gathered, when it should be carried out, and how frequently.

What's more, Peekaboo is also designed to auto-generate live privacy nutrition labels that summarize an app's declared behavior la Apple's privacy labels in iOS and Android's Data safety section.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/06/new-privacy-framework-for-iot-devices.html