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In the last couple of centuries, industries around the world, especially in Europe, the Americas and Asia succeeded in developing incredible and advanced technologies in an attempt to find solutions for the problems facing humanity. These problems include climate change, food insecurity, poverty, hate speech, bad governance, illiteracy, etc. The evidence of these technological innovations could be seen in the modernization of the transportation sector, improvement of medical sciences using the state-of-the-art facilities, invention of modern electronic devices as well as the remaking of the world into a single village through the information and telecommunication sectors. So far billions of objects/ devices are available in the market for improving work efficiency and offering entertainment.

With the rapid advancement of technology and innovation, there arose also a need for integrating the varieties of produced objects with one another and with the human society. The attempt to connect these objects using sensors and Internet, allowing them to generate and exchange data, was what actually triggered the evolution of the new technology we call “Internet of Things”. The Internet of Things, abbreviated “IoT”, is a concept which has completely transformed relationships and improved business interactions. Peter T. Lewis, who coined the term “Internet of Things” in 1985, offered, by far, the most accurate understanding of what IoT concept is really all about. He defined IoT as “the integration of people, processes and technology with connectable devices and sensors to enable remote monitoring, status, manipulation and evaluation of trends of such devices”.

The internet of things is nothing but the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other objects such as embedded systems and electronics, sensors and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. Through IoT, physical objects are integrated into the abstract computer-based systems; hence, improving efficiency, accuracy and provide economic benefits to the society. These isolated objects can now be sensed and controlled remotely, enabling them to generate and exchange data. Indeed, the number of businesses that use the IoT technologies has increased from 13 percent in 2014 to about 25 percent today. And the worldwide number of IoT-connected devices is projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023, an almost threefold increase from 2018 (McKinsey & Company, 2019).

Just few years back, the Internet of Things was viewed as the next industrial revolution and the year 2016 was predicted to be the year in which the technology would completely revamp our markets, homes and organizations. Today, IoT is already the predicted industrial revolution gaining momentum, shaping relationships and improving businesses. Governments and private sectors across the globe are already integrating IoT into their daily routines. A 2016 Forbes survey indicates that sixty per cent of organizations have started an IoT initiative, forty five per cent of which were funded by a new budget allocation. An additional twenty three per cent of companies plan to start an IoT initiative within a year. In another exploration of the state-of-IoT, about ninety per cent of the 500 executives surveyed said they remain in the planning and proof-of-concept stage, and only about 20% expect to implement solutions at scale by 2020.

Now before discussing some serious drawbacks and threats caused by this exciting technology and how we can make the most out of them, I think it’s helpful to navigate through some of the merits of IoT, its impact in shaping the scientific and engineering disciplines, boosting businesses and ameliorating human relationships. Why should we take IoT serious? How does it improve work efficiency and make life better? There should be compelling reasons why individuals and organizations to embrace the technology; below are some of them:

• Improved Health Care System

The Internet of Things helps hospitals and health centers in assessing and taking care of patients, monitoring their respective health conditions and finding out who need immediate attention. Nowadays, instead of health professionals coming regularly to check on the conditions of the patients, we already have mobile apps such as Massimo Radical-7, a health monitor for clinical environments that collects patient data and wirelessly transmits for ongoing display or for notification purposes. The results provide a complete, detailed picture of patient status for clinicians to review wherever they may be. The connectivity of health care solutions allows the health care professionals to access real time information necessary for better and informed decision making, resulting to the speedy treatment of diseases before they gets out of hand.

• Cost savings and Time:

IoT enables electronic appliances in the house to communicate with each other, generating and exchanging data through what we call machine to machine (M2M) communication. The sharing of data between these electronics and other objects in the house leads to efficient conservation of saving cost and energy. This reduces our financial expenditures, allowing for saving money for future usage. Moreover, the IoT helps in saving precious amount of time which could be utilized in doing something else. And in today’s modern life, we all could use more time.

• Safety, comfort and efficiency:

Security is one of our basic requirements. Every individual would want to feel secure and free, be it at night or daytime, at home, office or public places. There already exist technologies such as ADT device which enables individuals to monitor their security system at home by using their phones. Another technology called GM helps drivers to find out whether accidents occurred ahead or not. Moreover, we have seen that enabling devices and processes to communicate with each other and provide us with enormous data lead to improved guaranteed comfort and work efficiency in our companies or organizations. Luxurious Hotels now invest on IoT connectivity as service providers attempt to provide much needed comfort and enjoyment to their customers, hence blooming in business.

Now let’s reflect on the other side of the coin to examine the disadvantages of IoT and attempt to suggest some solutions that may hopefully be needful. Like any other man-made invention, the IoT has got its own shortcomings which we would have to take into serious consideration to help us make the most out of this exciting technology. Below are the issues of concern arising from the implementation of this fascinating trend:

• Privacy, Security and safety:

We have already mentioned that IoT involves generation and sharing of an extensive amount of data. The danger likely to be experienced in the usage of this technology is the possible loss of data through hacking, data loss due to system crash or any other means. And since the objects are all connected to produce the services they provide, we become vulnerable due to the fact that our data is likely to be intercepted any time and our privacy intruded. It’s worth saying that no matter how encrypted the data maybe, still the threat of it being hacked cannot and should not be underestimated. If your home is connected using IoT-connectivity and you have your smart phone as the control system of your house, then you are at risk of losing your privacy and security once your phone get damaged or intercepted. Thieves can easily break in if they can hack the control system you use. Companies are on the brink of facing business collapse and financial recession as it becomes difficult to secure the enormous amount of data they generate. In the health sector, mortality rates are likely to increase if the IoT-connected hospitals become vulnerable to attacks from those notorious virtual criminals or if the data is not well processed. A driver is at high risk of causing or meeting an accident if the GM app he uses is manipulated by an intruder. What could be the solution? I think in order to remedy such situations, it’s vital for companies as well as individuals implementing IoT to, first and foremost, conduct security risk assessment and test the security measures before they could launch or market their products. This will help in averting the security threats. Also, individuals who want to utilize IoT at home should ensure that they are well equipped with necessary skills related to encryption to enable them manage their own privacy and security.

• Data Complexity:

The amount of data generated by IoT is very huge and complex, measured in terabytes. Apart from security concern, data complexity poses a great challenge to individuals and societies who use IoT. Inability to handle the processing and analysis of such terabytes of data is disastrous to the individuals and the society. But how can we put up with this challenge? How can we successfully handle the processing of such data? One standing hope and solution is the use of data analytics and hadoop technology for processing huge amount of data. Individuals and organizations have to incorporate and integrate data science into their business. Governments and private sector companies should take it upon themselves to invest in capacity building program in the field of data science and other skills necessary for processing and handling terabytes of data being produced on a daily basis as the result of using IoT. Once a company has well trained and skilled human resource in the field of data science and data mining, there will be less worry in maintaining security and privacy as well as dealing with the complexity of the data it generates on daily basis.

• Loss of Job:

Unemployment is one of the major threats facing our world today. And while we get excited with the opportunities brought about by the IoT and other trending technologies, it’s of no good news that majority of people are faced with the prospect of losing their jobs as a result of automation. Low skilled workers doing office works like receptionists, guards, transport and logistics like taxi and bus drivers, workers in sales and services such as cashiers, counter and rental clerks, telemarketers and accountants all face joblessness due to high risk of computerization. Only highly skillful and technical persons are likely to have job security. A recent report released by Zinnov, a consulting research company predicted that by 2021, India alone will lose about 120,000 jobs due to IoT connectivity, 94,000 jobs will be eliminated and only about 25,000 will be created. The above research indicates that more jobs opportunities are likely to dissipate compared to those to be created by IoT. Moreover, in late 2016, a World Bank Research has warned that 69 per cent of jobs in India and 77 per cent in China are likely to get lost as the result of automation, thus disrupting the economic progress in developing countries. Even superpower countries such as the US, UK and Russia will not escape the danger of unemployment caused by automation as robots will be taking over most jobs which do not require critical thinking or creativity. However, there are still ways in which employment can be protected and increased and we can ensure that in the following ways: People have to become less technical and possess general purpose, have interpersonal skills, that is, empathy and caring, and get engaged in works that require collaboration. These are areas that cannot be automated. IoT is not necessary in it and robots cannot do them.

Finally, despite all the serious drawbacks we have seen above and many others that are not mentioned here, we have seen that there are possible solutions to be implemented to avert or minimize the threats posed by IoT against our privacy, security and jobs. The Internet of Things still has more advantages and should be cherished and invested upon to ensure efficiency, comfort and economic benefits to all.