The authors of a report The Internet of Everyone: Consumer Relationships in the Age of IoT, say universal surveillance will become acceptable and, even, welcome as we move towards an era of universal personal connectedness.
The publisher of the report, Lux Research says it studied IoT and consumer response to diverse technologies, and concluded: “Contrary to Orwellian fears about our every movement being recorded against our will, today’s teens and tomorrow’s tech leaders accept, and even embrace, increased, near-ubiquitous, personal surveillance. GoPro cameras record goings-on at beaches and ski resorts; and body cameras for police are sought by officers and activists alike.”
Mark Bünger, vice president of research at Lux Research and lead author of the report, said: “Surveillance technology, science fiction and the quantified self movement give a preview into how mainstream consumers will use personal IoT devices in the next decade. Far from being limited to information about what’s in and on consumers’ bodies, the Internet of Everyone will extend to interactions with family, hobbies and career, and with cars, homes, stores and cities.”
Lux Research expects this universal surveillance to revolutionise marketing “With IoT, marketers are no longer dependent on forecasts or even real-time data. They have access to ‘pre-time,’ or predictive data — embodied in practices like Amazon’s ‘anticipatory shipping,” Lux says.
“Customer ties move into the long tails. With fragmenting markets, the so-called long tail could be on its way to consumer goods, dramatically transforming ways of studying smaller market niches. A glimpse of its future comes from eBay’s acquisition of Hunch, which uses consumer searches and ‘non-obvious’ recommendations for other products in the online seller’s very long tail.”
