Nowadays we expect our TV to know which episode from our favourite series we have yet to see, or that the refrigerator writes our shopping list or that our vacuum cleaner notifies our smartphone when it has vacuumed the whole house while we were at work.
All this is possible thanks to the Internet of Things – IoT, which, simply put, is the interconnection between the Internet and the objects in our daily lives, such as our telephones, televisions, watches or vehicles.
Now that we have become used to living with gadgets invented to improve our daily lives, we will have to get used to being connected to the Internet.
This new interconnection is called the Internet of Bodies – IoB. It is already a reality. IoB are those smart devices with wifi connection or others such as bluetooth which are inside our body.
There are already several devices considered to be IoB and connected via wi-fi, such as remote-control pacemakers, devices that secrete insulin according to the level of blood sugar or cochlear implants that recover hearing for those who have lost it.
With IoT, an object is the technological platform by which interconnection between devices takes place. With IoB, in contrast, the human body is the platform through which interconnection takes place. We will see how this use of the human body as a technological platform generates a myriad of questions to be answered at a legal, ethical and even cybersecurity level. It is clear that these devices, while providing a service to the user, send a series of personal data relating to the health of the persons to whoever controls the device.
Let's ask ourselves now if, for example, the cardiovascular data transmitted by our pacemaker could be interesting information for someone. Might it interest, perhaps, the insurance company from which we want to buy life insurance?
Speaking now in terms of cybersecurity, it is quite common to read news from computer hackers who hijack a web page and threaten data theft or complete control of the page. Thinking in IoB terms, what would happen if that hacking happened to a device that controls the level of insulin in our blood? Could the hacker sabotage the device? Could he even disconnect it?
The above issues on data protection and cybersecurity will have to be answered in the future, because, as ever, the legislation will not keep pace with the technology and the IoB will not slow down its progress.
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