  The Internet of Things (or IoT), which enables the networked interconnection
of everyday objects, is becoming increasingly popular in many aspects of our
lives ranging from entertainment to health care. While the IoT brings a set of
invaluable advantages and opportunities with it, there is also evidence of
numerous challenges that are yet to be resolved. This is certainly the case
with regard to ensuring the cyber security of the IoT, and there are various
examples of devices being hacked. Despite this evidence, little is known about
the public perceptions of the opportunities and challenges presented by the
IoT. To advance research in this direction, we mined the social media platform
Twitter to learn about public opinion about the IoT. Analysing a longitudinal
dataset of more than 6.7 million tweets, we reveal insights into public
perceptions of the IoT, identifying big data analytics as the most positive
aspect, whereas security issues are the main public concern on the negative
side. Our study serves to highlight the importance of keeping IoT devices
secure, and remind manufacturers that it is a concern that remains unresolved,
at least insofar as the public believes.
