PrivacyCheq announced the immediate availability of Privacynq, a new service enabling manufacturers of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to easily and effectively disclose privacy and security practices to consumers of their products.
It has been very difficult for consumers purchasing IoT sensors to wear or place in their homes to know where the massive amounts of captured data was being stored, where it was shared, and what (if any) precautions were being taken to protect it. At the 2015, Consumer Electronics Show and numerous other speeches, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has urged the IoT industry to self regulate and ‘design for privacy’ by giving users a clear understanding of the privacy and security aspects of their products.
The Privacynq service provides an elegant solution to this IoT “privacy vacuum”, enabling manufa
cturers to easily deliver consumers a condensed privacy and security report called a “Privacynq Brief.” The Privacynq Brief gives concise, understandable answers to the best questions that a privacy and security expert would ask when considering the purchase and use of an IoT product, such as “How do I benefit from this data being captured?”, “What is captured?”, “Whom is my data shared with?”, “How is it secured?” and “How will you notify me if a breach occurs?”
To help consumers make informed purchasing decisions, Privacynq Briefs can be easily viewed o
n any smartphone while shopping in stores, on a desktop PC while browsing e-commerce sites, and even from an IoT product’s mobile ‘dashboard’ app. Unlike paper or static web notices, the Privacynq Brief is an always current “live” online document, tracking any changes in the product’s privacy and security policies whenever it is viewed.
Roy Smith, CEO and founder, PrivacyCheq said:“While the 2015 Pew privacy survey showed that 91% of consumers feel their privacy is ‘out of control’, consumer IoT manufacturers have so far missed a great opportunity to impress consumers by being forthright and open about privacy and security.”
“We created the Privacynq Brief to give the emerging IoT industry an easy way to delight users by delivering clarity on privacy and security, as recommended by the FTC. What we are doing for the IoT market with this disclosure is analogous to the ‘Nutrition Facts’ labels on packaged food that show important dietary and ingredient information, allowing shoppers to make informed decisions. This type of standard disclosure is critical to build consumer trust in IoT products as they become more and more integrated into our daily lives,” concluded by Roy Smith, CEO and founder, PrivacyCheq.
