The Internet of Things: Where Privacy and Copyright Collide

Abstract

Our Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices are constantly monitoring our every move, collecting sensitive data about us in a way that we do not fully appreciate. Manufacturers of these devices have a huge financial incentive to collect as much data on us as they can, and to use and sell this data in its most identifiable form. Yet our privacy regulations currently provide no real checks on how data is collected and used by these companies. Furthermore, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) actually creates a substantial roadblock in this instance, preventing users and the government from ever finding out what data is collected and how it used by device manufacturers. To create some transparency in this system, the DMCA should be amended to include a limited circumvention exception for privacy. The proposed exception attempts to incentivize above-board behavior by device manufacturers, while allowing the government’s chief privacy agency, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), to have at its disposal the tools and resources required to investigate improper practices. Under this proposal, the FTC can help create binding industry standards for data collection and dissemination, aligning the DMCA with the goals in our privacy regulations and filling in the regulatory gaps our current privacy laws leave for IoT device manufacturers.