LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 NORTH AMERICA: Privacy and security need to be central to the ongoing evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) now, because “if we mess up security later, the results will be much worse”, Alan Dabbiere, chairman of AirWatch, warned.

“We need to get much more serious about privacy and security and segmentation of our networks and making sure before we get too far, and have a data breach that is unrecoverable, that we have secured these systems in a way that consumers feel comfortable about,” he said.

“Our world is a trade-off today, that I’m willing to give up all of this privacy for convenience. And it’s happening in every age-group, from the youngest to the oldest of us, because these devices are becoming so thoroughly embedded not only in our lives, but in our environments,” he noted.

“We would have said ‘time out’ a long time ago if we thought the industry was abusing these privileges. It’s not, the industry has been very restrained, and very appropriately restrained, to make sure that the value proposition is overwhelmingly on the side of the consumer. But we have to make sure we continue down this path, because the backlash would be difficult,” Dabbiere warned.

The executive also noted that the emergence of new business models based around dynamic pricing and real-time resource allocation raise issues of “fairness”.

“I am willing to pay for speed. I am willing to pay for usage. I am willing to pay for consumption. There is technology now that will allow me to do these things. And it’s driving even more ethical issues of when does fair become not quite as fair, as we reduce the democratisation. If I can’t pay for the fast roads, I’m stuck on the slow roads. If I can’t pay for a parking spot, I can’t get a parking spot,” the AirWatch head observed.

“Things that were fair in our society are changing, and as we get into this real-time environment, with dynamic pricing for everything from food to fuel to parking, where does this end? There are a lot of things that still need to be worked out,” he continued.