A team of Carnegie Mellon researchers have developed a rather unique Internet of Things (IoT) app. The Internet of Things Assistant app is an entire IoT ecosystem that strives to inform users about what IoT technologies are around them and what data they are collecting.
Launched earlier this week, the Carnegie Mellon IoT app is available on Android as well as iOS phones.
Writing about it on the Carnegie Mellon University Website, Daniel Tkacik says the IoT Assistant app will let you discover the IoT devices around you and learn about the data they collect. If the device offers privacy choices like opting in or out of data collection, the app will help you access these choices.
“Because of new laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), people need to be informed about what data is collected about them and they need to be given some choices over these processes,” says Professor Norman Sadeh, a CyLab faculty member in Carnegie Mellon’s Institute for Software Research and the principal investigator on the project in the post. “We have built an infrastructure that enables owners of IoT technologies to comply with these laws, and an app that takes advantage of this infrastructure to empower people to find out about and control data collected by these technologies.”
The project was made possible by a large grant under DARPA’s Brandeis privacy research program as well as funding from the National Science Foundation’ Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program.
Image credit: Carnegie Mellon