Internet of Behaviours is the newest technology that reveals customers buying behaviours

The scope of IoB is vast, and so the pitfalls too are immense. The use of facial recognition software is still under scanner due to reports that the police used the technology in the U.S. to track and identify anti-racism protestors after the infamous death of George Floyd. The aftermath resulted in IBM relinquishing its facial recognition business and Microsoft halting the sale of these technologies to the police. Social Media giant Facebook faced public wrath when it partnered with a political data-analyst firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) to gather data of 50 million Facebook users to be used for political campaigns. The true scale of this scandal, and its dangers, is reflected in the words of a former employee of the research institute, Christopher Wylie who has quoted, “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons.”

Insurers and loan providers can also scan your social media profiles to decide for or against an application, which can be termed extra-legal and debatable. And then there is the threat of governments forcing private companies to share data or private companies selling data to government or 3rd party agencies. There is an urgent need for private and government bodies to chime in and make concerted efforts to strike a balance between personalized marketing and intrusion over individual/group privacy. There is the threat of this technology snowballing out of control.

IoB may also afford cybercriminals a chink in our armor to gain access to sensitive data related to customer patterns, banking codes, OTPs, and other confidential data. The same technology that influences a customer’s purchase could help scammers in their quest to trick even the wariest citizens into giving away critical information. Companies that choose to take the IoB route must have strong domain expertise and a robust cybersecurity system in place. Organizations with a smart and proactive approach have always found ways to integrate security into each step of the agile process. On the flip side, the companies that fail to do so may end up leaking crucial customer data, like fitness app Polar, whose weaker data security features allowed researchers to collect sensitive details of more than 6,460 U.S. military and security personnel.

These grim accounts and possibilities, however scarier, pales in comparison to the many benefits that IoB offers to the society-at-large. No tool is problematic in itself. And as the old saying goes, every coin has two sides. The information revolution holds the key to transforming our lives, and its advantages have led to an increased demand for its implementation from the consumers of today. What matters is navigating the treacherous path of technological growth while not losing sight of the ethics of business.

Technological interventions of the past have always helped companies make the best use of their marketing efforts, create products/services, and promote what people want to buy. IoB can take this development to a wholly different level. Gartner’s predictions suggest that by the end of 2025, more than 50% of the world’s population will be exposed to at least one IoB program, either from the government or a private company. With responsible use, we will have an ecosystem that values empathy in a world that is getting more and more digital. As the efficacy of the tool is now proven, it’s time that we regulate it and make it more secure, reliable, with the value quotient intact.