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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

for a growing number of users. Businesses no longer es need to create a security monitoring and update par-
just know what products a customer buys, but for in- adigm for their products, including products long past
stance how and in what contexts the person uses these their physical warranty dates, to keep them patched
products, too. The ability to use this information to opti- and up-to-date automatically and transparently”, re-
mize not only products, but also marketing and service minding that “in today’s world safety and security must
communications is becoming an essential part of com- be built in with all known and unknown use cases in
petitiveness. In addition, new communication channels mind.”
are opening through networked end devices. Smart-
watches and other wearables, connected cars, smart New end devices, new channels
homes, networked household appliances, etc. offer
great potential for not only gathering data, but also com- Indeed, whether smartwatches, smart glasses, con-
municating with the customer. Even though this is not nected cars or the infamous internet-capable refrigera-
yet possible with many networked end devices, it’s time tor, all networked devices that communicate with the
to start conceptualizing application scenarios. customer can theoretically also be used to spread mar-
keting messages – and cyberthreats
In the B2B sector, service communication can benefit
from the Internet of Things, too. For example, the con- Here, it is up to the device manufacturers and their
tinuous monitoring of machines can detect deterioration partners to develop application scenarios for marketing
and point out that an inspection is needed at a specific and service communication, to define software and
time. Or the reordering of consumables can be request- communication standards, as well as to produce corre-
ed, depending on the production capacity, etc. sponding end devices. Although all this seems still a
long way off and wishful thinking, many devices, such
Highest demands on data protection and as e.g. networked household appliances, have the po-
data security tential to open new communication channels.

Whether healthcare data from medical devices in the Some already integrate existing communication chan-
B2C, or business-relevant data on manufacturing pro- nels, like social media or email, making it important to
cesses in B2B, many data collected in the Internet of monitor their developments, possibly even influence
Things are highly sensitive, making great demand on them, and at the very least conceptually deal with appli-
data protection and data security. With each data- cation scenarios at an early stage: The Apple Watch,
producing device, a further source as well as a further for example, enables the reception of emails and push
transmission path is created, on which data must be messages from apps and is therefore a relevant device
protected against misuse. for location-based marketing in real-time, and via the
That’s why some have reservations when considering onboard computer of a connected car not only traffic
the Internet of Things as they fear data misuse and loss information or entertainment content could be ac-
of control. It is therefore an important prerequisite for cessed, but it can also serve as a channel for market-
companies to create both (legally) secure technical pro- ing and service communication.
cesses for the collection, storage and processing of da-
ta from the Internet of Things, and to win the trust of Let’s stay curious about the future Internet of Things,
private and business customers whose data marketers as it is certainly an important trend that will shape the
want to use. marketing of tomorrow. ◊
Dr William H. Saito, Special Advisor to the Cabinet, By Daniela La Marca
Government of Japan, explained during the INTERPOL
World 2017 Congress earlier this month, that
‘executives would surely be able to utilize security as an
effective tool to enhance the corporate value of their
organizations, rather than seeing it as a cost center or a
liability, if the concept of ‘security by design’, giving suf-
ficient consideration to convenience, would be applied.
Aside from that, Mr Saito said: “Developers of IoT devic-
14 July 2017 - Internet of Things (IoT) & Wearables