The event, which brings together over 400 industry experts, saw a huge demand for answers on data privacy and ownership which could pave the way for new data privacy acts.
Stephen Pattison, VP Public Affairs at ARM took the stage saying that "the game is not over, it is just beginning".
Pattison drove the debate to the security arm of IoT claiming that security splits into two: data security and data protection.
He said: "The industry also needs to look at how to simplify terms and conditions."
The most controversial take-away from Pattison’s speech, also chair at TechUK, was when he affirmed that consumers should own their data.
"We must all accept consumers own their data and we need to make sure consumers have a good sense that their own their data."
He added that a data handling framework is needed and that "we should use data to deliver service and to advertise related products and life style products".
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The conference then turned into concepts of agency and data ownership, to which Pattison said: "Everybody in the business is starting to think about this. Conversation needs to move from privacy to data use.
He exemplified this concept with a smart fridge. For example, a fridge operator might be useful to know someone’s fridge data, "but you don’t want that in the press" calling for anonymised data.
Darren Thomson, CTO at Symantec mentioned outcomes from a data privacy report the company produced.
The CTO said that for the first time "we can see the importance of personal data privacy".
He added: "Secondly, more and more people are lying to their services. A big part of the IoT ecosystem is big data, analytics and the power of information.
"That starts falling to pieces if we find a lot of people are lying." He continued: "I have a feeling it is going to be more about principles."
Succeeding Thomson, Andy Stanford-Clark, engineer at IBM took on IoT standards. He said: "Standards are like toothbrushes, everyone needs them but no one wants to use someone else’s."
Smart cities
According to Pattison, transport networks need a nudge behavioural change, better integrated systems and they will have to "offer more than google maps".
"If we want to do it at a city level, we have to involve everyone from bus companies to traffic controllers," he said.
Pattison mentioned that there are issues for councils and cities to begin to address as who pays for the smart city, and how can councils use the smarter world to introduce new revenues streams to themselves".
As a result, the VP claims that there is a need for smart city use cases to demonstrate efficiency to show opportunities for new revenue streams. Although, some problems like business models, security and data need to be overcome.
IoT legacy and playing God
The IoT is "about making inanimate objects coming to life," according to Policy Advisor Simon Anholt.
Anholt said: "We can be pardoned perhaps with confusing ourselves with a God if we’re able to [give life to objects], but when standing on the brink of God-like endeavours we have to assume the responsibility of Gods and consider the consequences of our actions."
He then questioned the audience on what is the industry’s gift to the world and the future generations.
"The keynote to the age we are getting to is cooperation and less competition, then we can create a good legacy for the next generation," he continued.
In a shout out to governments, Anholt added that in the future they will have a dual mandate. Every nation’s executive will be responsible for their own people and every women, men and child on earth.
Brian Robertson, Director EMEA Broadcom said: "Data is the gold and more attention from governments will be needed. It’s a very difficult debate."
