Does the Internet of Things mean we’ll never be left to our own devices?

Liz Coll, Digital Policy Expert, introduces and outlines consumer concerns around the Internet of Things in light of Consumers International's latest report.

Nest’s announcement last month that it would no longer support Revolv’s smart home controller may not have topped many consumer’s concerns, but it clearly demonstrates the kinds of detriment that look set to arise from the Internet of Things. 

Revolv (acquired by Google’s Nest in 2014) let people connect and control all of the smart switches, security devices, sensors, and heating in their home. This week it will be switched off, so the hardware will no longer function. The Revolv customer (and ‘lifetime’ subscription holder) who first drew attention to this in a blog, sums up the impact of its closure on him: 

 “My house will stop working. My landscape lighting will stop turning on and off, my security lights will stop reacting to motion, and my home made vacation burglar deterrent will stop working. This is a conscious intentional decision by Google/Nest.”

Consumers who bought the product with a lifetime subscription were left wondering whether they would have any rights to refunds, or replacements or what would happen with its data? Since the user outcry, there been a change of heart, and now refunds will be issued for the hub purchase price. 

But is pulling the plug on owned devices a one off, an inconvenient by-product of fast moving technology, or could this be a worrying indication of a potential future for the Internet of Things? We may see a future where device functionality is more and more dependent on remote decisions with little input from owners, and where large companies definition of a product ‘lifetime’ prevails. 

The future’s here

With estimates that, already, 25 billion devices are connected to the Internet of Things – a figure that’s set to double by 2020 -  connected devices now outnumber people by nearly  4 to 1. 

No longer a futuristic concept, the Internet of Things is becoming embedded in everyday life - along with some patterns that may cause alarm for consumers. It’s not just about devices and appliances at the luxury end of the market (such as talking fridges), Consumer International’s (CI) latest research with Members in Kenya, the Philippines and Nigeria discovered that smart systems and products are connecting and collecting data on users and services across all walks of life, including healthcare and public transportation.  

Of course, consumers could stand to benefit in many ways, as more devices across more sectors share usage information and learning. Think of the convenience of a smart car whose tyre sensors detect the precise time at which you need a replacement; the peace of mind of a smart home security system, or items tagged with location sensors; the ease of using a connected transit system across a busy city; or an energy home system that learns and adjusts to your preferences and habits.

The erosion of ownership

So far the capacity of these devices to collect detailed, time sensitive and often personal data and share it with other devices or remote hubs has been the subject of much attention and discussion about privacy. Security is also a huge concern, with much larger surface area meaning increased vulnerability.  

But the implications go much further than this and could, as in the case of Revolv’s smart home kit, suggest a world where the normal expectations of what we can do, and for how long, with things we have purchased are turned on their head.  

Our new report calls this the ‘erosion of ownership’ which could come about as tangible objects take on digital properties by way of the software embedded into them. We expect to see more hybrid products emerging where the part of the product containing software is licenced via contract while the device itself is owned. In such cases, will operation of the device be subject to contract terms which can put unexpected limitations on how the product is used - or in Revolv’s case, if it can actually be used at all? There are even fears that we may start to see the type of remote automated contract enforcement recognisable from digital rights management, where technical blocks are put on to limit particular uses and prevent unauthorised use, repair or plug-ins.

Upholding rights for the future

How easy will it be for consumers to understand or uphold their rights, or attempt to uphold them given such complex lines of responsibility? Or where there is confusion over exactly what a consumer can or can’t do with a product they have purchased? 

We know laws find it hard to keep up with technological developments, and that as products and companies cut across not only sectors but national jurisdictions, that regulation and enforcement of consumer rights is challenging. Additionally, we cannot rely on competition to provide for checks and balances as a small number of companies dominate, and provider lock- in is already evident in the infancy of the Internet of Things.  

To make sure that we really can be left to our own devices if we prefer, consumer protection and concepts of proportionality, fair use and fair processes, must be put at the centre of discussions on the Internet of Things development and delivery. 

What’s more, to move beyond protection and into a scenario where consumers can gain insight and convenience from connected devices on their own terms, services and products should be designed with consumer trust and controls built in, with easy ways to hold companies who overstep the mark to account.

Consumers International’s latest report is available here ‘Connection and Protection in the Digital Age: The Internet of Things and challenges for consumer protection’

Crowd sourcing and consumer rights — a powerful combination

Julianna Smith, Policy Advocate for Consumer Focus in the UK, looks at the possibilities of crowd-sourced maps for the consumer movement.

Last year a web map appeared that displayed real time reports of people in India who were experiencing a power cut. It came about after Twitter users – fed up with the unreliable power supply during the summer – began a discussion with the hashtag #powercutindia. 

They used it to report details such as the location and duration of the power outage and whether it was planned or not. Given the high response rate, some of the tweeters took the initiative to feed the tweets into an infographic that collected and mapped this information, thereby highlighting the need for investment.

The map has since expanded to include many other methods of reporting and has helped to develop a better understanding of electricity demand by exposing areas where there is a need for investment in power production and distribution. 

The map creators also aimed to use the map to draw more attention to the rural areas of India which they say have been previously neglected in public discussions. This type of interactive map is often referred to as a ‘crowd-sourced map’.
The power cuts in India map is one of many examples that demonstrate how crowd sourcing supports empowerment and helps consumer representatives better understand and respond to emerging issues. 

 Other recent examples include the London Borough of Hackney’s Citizens Advice Bureau’s housing benefit map showing the effects of the changes in legislation to housing benefits and BBC’s 3G mobile data network crowd-sourcing map which challenges the availability rates that had originally been suggested. 

A new world of opportunity

Further exploration of cases like these can be found in our new report Putting problems on the map . 

It illustrates how data collected in this manner can complement and enhance traditional forms of intelligence gathering.

Interactive maps offer the opportunity for consumers to report their experiences. The geographical element means these maps can work as powerful visibility tools. Common features, such as the clusters of ‘flagged’ reports and the ability to filter reports according to the map’s key (for example, by company), mean that displaying data in this way paints clear pictures of emerging problems or hubs of activity.

This type of tool also produces real-time data. Not only can this result in a powerful early warning system, but it visualises the changes in consumer sentiment and the prevalence of an issue over time. 

Generated data can also be stored and re-used for further analysis. For instance, other data sets can be plotted on the same map in the form of additional layers as a way of investigating possible correlations. Maptube is a good example of a tool designed for this process.

With these online maps, organisations can communicate among themselves as well as directly with consumers to capture information on the specifics of a consumer issue – be it a roll-out, a collective buying initiative or customer service related issues. 

For example, bodies such as Trading Standards could use this type of tool to help address interregional problems and determine how to co-ordinate responses in each of the affected regions. This is valuable as many issues surrounding consumer detriment spread across local authority boundaries.

For other users, this service would function as a valuable tool to raise awareness of matters affecting their local area. Importantly, all of this can be achieved through user-friendly services that in some instances are more straightforward, convenient and powerful than conventional channels.

Since several of our own policy areas would benefit from mapped consumer-contributed data, we are in the process of trialling this technology with the hope of using it in future projects. Issues we have in mind include: collaborative buying of renewable technologies, community or area-based roll-outs of new policy initiatives and mis-selling.

There appear to be many advantages to consumer crowd-sourced maps. They can amplify consumer voices and present the opportunity for co-operation between consumers and the various bodies that work on their behalf. 

The intelligence that these maps capture can help bring greater transparency and scrutiny to provider performances; and can support consumers in collaborating on peer-led responses. In doing so, they form part of wider trends in the new and powerful forms of consumer empowerment initiatives that are driven by social technologies.

Build your own map

If you are interested in setting up your own map, you can go to Crowdmap.  Crowdmap is designed and built by the people behind Ushahidi, a platform that was originally built to crowd-source crisis information. 

Crowdmap allows you to set up your own map of Ushahidi without having to install it on your own web server. It is fast, free and easy to use; you sign up, choose a location and start plotting reports, information and other data right away.

mySociety , an organisation whose mission is to help people become more powerful in the civic and democratic parts of their lives through digital means, are also helping those in other countries to set up new web applications. They have developed free and open-source software for individuals and organisations who want to build copies of the sites they build.

FixMyStreet and MapIt are now available for people around the world to use, making it easier than ever to reuse code and set up new sites that help people fix things that matter to them.

Unregulated pharmacies prompt health fears in Afghan province

According to Ajmal Wesal from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting authorities have little control over chemists’ shops in Uruzgan, undermining faith in the health sector. 

Khair Mohammad may not be a qualified doctor, but he offers a wide range of treatments to whoever will pay. On a blanket laid out beside a road in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, the self-appointed pharmacist sells cures for everything from acne and depression to liver complaints.

Many of Mohammad’s customers in the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt are poor or illiterate. They do not have prescriptions from a doctor, and Mohammad, who cannot read or write, does not ask for them.

"We bring these medicines from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt," he said. "The good thing is that no one demands money from us for selling them, or from selling them from this spot."

Mohammad’s pills enable him to make a living in a particularly isolated and impoverished province in central Afghanistan, where drugs and health professionals are often in short supply. (See Healthcare Crisis in Central Afghan District.)

But he is part of a largely unregulated pharmaceutical trade which some people fear is carries high risks. Sources in Uruzgan say anyone can sell medication, regardless of their level of medical training, or whether the drugs have expired.

Afghanistan imports medicines from countries including Iran, China, Pakistan and India. Regulation is slack, the country’s borders are notoriously porous, and some import companies are unlicensed. This creates ideal conditions for counterfeit or low-quality drugs to enter the market.

Enforcement

Dr Sayed Agha Miakhel, head of Uruzgan’s provincial public health department, said there was little he could do to rein in the free-wheeling pharmaceutical trade.

His officials inspect the town’s 52 formal pharmacies every six months looking for low-quality or expired medication, but when it comes to enforcement they have few options.

In 2009, Miakhel’s department closed down four pharmacies for operating without licences, but they quickly reopened thanks to support from influential local figures.

"I could not take on these four [pharmacists] because they are all backed by local commanders, lawmakers and senators," he said. "For this reason, controlling pharmacies and medical check-up centres in this city is pointless."

Alongside the pharmacies, some 20 to 30 street vendors like Mohammad sell medication around Tarin Kowt.

The lack of regulation has undermined public confidence in the health sector. Residents of Chura, Dehrawud, Charchino and Chanartu districts, as well as Tarin Kowt, say they know of people killed by low-quality or expired medicines.

They include Qasem, a 33-year-old who repairs radios at an electrical store in Tarin Kowt, who lost his baby daughter Samina in December 2011.

Cause of death

The causes of Samina’s death are unclear. The infant appeared to be feeling faint, which her relatives believe may have been caused by a coal or gas heater. After they took her to the provincial hospital she was given an injection. According to Qasem, her condition then declined rapidly.

"As soon as the doctor injected her, I noticed that she became increasingly faint hour by hour, so that her eyes were closing," he recalled.

It is unclear what the syringe contained, but Samina’s relatives claim that one doctor subsequently looked at the packaging, hit his forehead and exclaimed that the medication had expired.

Samina’s family also said that she was prescribed drugs for malaria and typhoid worth about four US dollars, but alleged that when they collected them from the pharmacy, they too had expired.

"While I was planning to take Samina to another doctor the next day, she stopped breathing and died," Qasem said.

Qasem raised his daughter’s death with the pharmacist who sold the medicines, who denied any responsibility. 

At the provincial hospital, doctors denied injecting drugs that had passed their expiry date, and said Samina could have died from complications relating to malaria.

Public health

Whatever caused the child’s death, officials acknowledge that public health in Uruzgan leaves much to be desired.

In the absence of state support, much of the health work in the province is conducted by the non-governmental group Afghan Health and Development Services, Miakhel said.

"The truth is that public health ministry has forgotten Uruzgan because it is a mountainous, underdeveloped province," he said. “They have not supported it. Without money, people can do nothing."

The health and sanitation problems even appear to have reached the provincial public health department.

In a room opposite Miakhel’s office, which apparently belonged to another senior colleague, the table tops were thick with dust, while dirty plates could be seen on a table in the corner.

A visiting reporter had to cover his nose due to the overwhelmingly pungent smell that wafted from the room into the corridor.

This story has been reprinted here with permission from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and the author, Ajmal Wesal, an IWPR-trained journalist in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.

Building support and leading advocacy for CI in Asia

Indrani Thuraisingham, Head of CI Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, reports on the activities of the region

It’s been a busy time in the Asia Pacific and Middle East region and I’m happy to be able to announce the completion of some important projects as well as the addition of two new members to the CI family.

First, welcome to our newest members:

• Consumer Rights and Services Organisation (CRSO), Afghanistan; and
• Yogyakarta Consumer Institute of Indonesia.

Second, I am excited to announce the upcoming release of our EU-funded video on the challenges faced by consumers in relation to sustainable consumption and production.

This six-minute video is a collaboration between CI and SWITCH-Asia, an EU-funded programme to promote sustainable consumption and production.

The video features stories from many typical households throughout Asia and their consumer habits as collected by SWITCH-Asia partners in China, India and Vietnam and the following CI members:  

• UBINIG, Bangladesh;
• Consumers Association of India;
• Foundation for Consumers, Thailand; and
• FOMCA, Malaysia.

The video will be shown at the Rio+20 Earth Summit in Brazil this month. It will be available for all to see on the CI website, and you can ‘like’ us on Facebook to keep up to date with this and all our activities for Rio+20..

Third, we successfully completed our seven-month programme of work in Nepal which looked at ways to develop the country’s consumer movement.

We found that getting more information into circulation through consumer education and awareness programmes and setting up clear and effective systems for redress are the best ways to boost consumer confidence and grow the country’s movement.

As part of the project, our office carried out training sessions, mapping of consumer organisations, exposure visits, and printing of IEC materials on consumer protection as well as organised the policy conference for government officials from the Department of Commerce and representatives of all of the consumer organisations in Nepal.

The programme was run under the auspices of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization through the EC-Nepal WTO Assistance Programme towards "making the consumer movement a viable market force" from September 2011 until March 2012.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that our office is currently leading CI’s work in two of the five global priority programmes as part of our new Strategy 2015. These are ‘Consumers in the Digital Age’ and ‘Consumer Justice and Protection’.

These two global programmes have a common agenda of engaging UNCTAD to revise the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection to include access to knowledge, competition, financial services and e-commerce.

CI’s Dr Jeremy Malcolm attended the recent UNCTAD XIII conference in Doha, Qatar, to advocate for the inclusion of both consumer protection and access to knowledge issues in the outcome documents of the conference.

There were heated debates with governments from some developed countries about their desire to remove important references to the global financial crisis and climate change from the outcome text. It was due to the persistence of civil society organisations such as CI that most of those references were reinstated.

In the end, the outcome documents made a strong statement for the consumer movement, in particular the civil society statement which reiterated the eight consumer rights, and called for the revision of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection.

Breaking ground in the fight for consumer rights in Asia Pacific and Middle East

Following the success of World Consumer Rights Day, Indrani Thuraisingham, Head of CI Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, explains why it’s an exciting time for the region.

 
 

World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is a great opportunity to see the strength of our members in the Asia Pacific and Middle East region. This year, WCRD focused on consumer choice in financial services. Members from more than 23 countries in our region participated in events to mark the occasion.

Even the newly-formed, one-month-old consumer organisation in Afghanistan, the Consumer Rights and Services Organization (CRSO), (who is in the process of applying for CI membership) joined in by having the first-ever WCRD celebration in their country.

I travelled to Bangladesh to celebrate WCRD with the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, a CI member. There are more than seven million Bangladeshis working overseas and these workers often face high charges of between 5% and 20% every time they send money home.

We are working on this issue as part of our Global Money Transfers project.

In Bangladesh, if you want a copy of your bank statement urgently, you would need to pay USD10 for it. If you’re willing to wait up to five days, then you would need to pay only USD3. All this for your own bank account statement!

Our Consumers for Fair Financial Services campaign fighting for this to be something everyone should be entitled to for free.

The following day I was in India where I was one of the guests of honour at CI member Consumers Association of India’s 10^th anniversary international conference on the theme, ‘Is the consumer really the king?’ Here I talked about the need for consumer organisations to use Facebook and other social media tools to raise awareness on consumer rights and responsibilities.

Come and ‘like’ CI’s Facebook page and see how we are using social media to raise awareness of consumer issues around the globe.

The CI regional meeting for Asia Pacific and the Middle East

Our office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East hosted the regional members’ meeting and conference: ‘Consumers in the Information Society: Access, Fairness and Representation’ in Kuala Lumpur. Fifty-one participants representing 37 organisations from 20 countries attended this meeting.

In-depth discussions were held on CI’s new strategic direction for the next four years and the five priority programmes that CI will focus on: financial services, food, consumers in the digital age, sustainable consumption, and consumer protection and legislation. In addition, our new strategy has a renewed focus on organisational empowerment; where CI helps members to help themselves.

Member organisations were reminded to be in continuous communication with CI on their activities in relation to CI’s priority programmes as well as emerging issues and concerns. This gives us the strength as a unified voice to collectively bring changes in terms of policy as well as corporations’ behaviour and practices.

One of these areas was taken up at the conference by CI's Director General Helen McCallum, who delivered a speech on emerging ICT technologies. The speech considered the networks we use to communicate (such as the Internet); the devices we use to do so (such as smartphones and computers); and the rules that regulate content passing through these devices and networks (such as intellectual property rights and privacy law). All of these are major issues for consumers in our region.

This office will work towards building a CI brand that is synonymous with consumer rights and protection. We will encourage and ensure all members from the region belong to at least one priority programme that is relevant to their work.

It’s an exciting time. We will form partnerships with relevant stakeholders to achieve our objective of bringing change, and look for strategic members to further strengthen our presence as the sole global consumer voice championing consumer rights.

We do this work because CI belongs to its member organisations; organisations that are fighting for consumer rights across the Asia Pacific and Middle East region.