Research Proposal: Ethical Issues and Technologies of the IoT

This research proposal delves into the ethical dimensions of the Internet of Things (IoT), examining the interplay between data sensitivity and the pervasive nature of networked devices. It addresses the ethical challenges posed by emerging technologies like RFID, sensors, NFC, 3G, and 4G, considering their impact on privacy, security, and human behavior. The proposal outlines the research questions, reviews relevant literature, and discusses the methodologies to investigate the ethical implications of IoT's characteristics such as ubiquity, ambiguity, ultra-connectivity, and autonomous behavior. It aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the ethical concerns arising from IoT technologies and their broader societal impacts, including smart cities, healthcare monitoring and household applications.

Running head: THE INTERNET OF THINGS
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Name of the Student
Name of the Organization
Author Note

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Abstract
The main purpose of the study mainly involves treating all the aspects which are directly
related the data sensitivity and the huge amount of knowledge which is seen to be transmitted
through the Internet of Things and thus helping all the people who are particularly interested in
all of these new technologies of ICT for becoming aware of all kinds of issues which are mainly
ethical. In this full new media, where it has been noticed that there is no more infancy and there
are a wide number of attacks as well as vulnerabilities which are seen to be caused by several
advances in technology with the lack of awareness among all the users. This kinds of warning
message is very much required due to the transfer of data, knowledge as well as information
from all the devices which are virtual to those which are mainly physical connected to all the
networks which are mainly wireless possessing several sizes as well as importance. It has been
observed that the transfer has been augmented due to an extensive use of several new
technologies like NFC, 3G, RFID and so on which brings with it the adjustment of the security
threats of information which are mainly traditional to this full new environment and also the
huge emergence of several new dangers as well. The main aim of the research will be to involve
all kinds of problems and the ethical concerns which have been raised by the Internet of Things.
A detailed methodology will also be present which will be helping in carrying out the research in
an appropriate direction.

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Introduction
All the aspects which are directly related to the ethics to the technology of information
and communication have always been a study for the world academic and the broad public since
the specific appearance of several computers and the emerging concept of artificial intelligence
(Zhou and Piramuthu 2015). Hence, it can be said that all the technologies of information as well
as communication are very much of both creative as well as emergent nature and either
implicitly or explicitly they have the capability of overtaking some of the tasks and then finally
induce certain type of moods very delicately or can also force certain behaviours of pattern
following all of their own logic of functioning and adapting the main situation and heading
towards the maximum efficiency imperatively (Chaudhuri 2017). Society will be able to answer
particularly to this by both accepting as well as adapting the specific situation. Recently, there
are a number of researches which go on regarding all the green technologies, technologies which
are calm, computing of cloud, bog data and the impact of several networks of socializing upon
several people as well as communities (Bates and Friday 2017).
It has been observed that Internet of Things is one of the technological accomplishments
mainly the contemporary one which raises a huge number of several questions related to ethics
(Lokshina, Durkin and Lanting 2017). In the Internet of Things, there are a number of physical
things which are connected to some other physical things by utilising the communication which
is mainly wireless and by providing with a number of contexts which are highly contextual
(O'Leary 2016). It has been known that there are about more than 75 billion of different objects
which will be capable of connecting to the IoT by the year 2020. The Internet of Things not only
refers to only things but also to the particular relationship as well which is present between all

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the objects which mostly surrounds a large number of people each and every day and all the
people themselves. There has been a question which has been raised which asks that what will be
the place for all the human beings within which there are about seven billions of people who are
living all together with about seventy billion cars and about a few billions of different objects
which are mainly linked to a particular infrastructure of the world wide networking, possessing
with the capability of self-configuration as well as self-coordination. All the different issues
related to ethics are seen to be caused due to the wide expansion upon a huge scale of all the
technologies which are mostly IoT specific as well as characteristics (Iansiti, M., 2017). IoT is
mainly based upon a worldwide network of infrastructure of network which has the capability of
linking all the objects which are both physical as well as virtual in a special way by directly
exploiting all kinds of data which have been captured by all the sensors, specialised equipment
utilised for both localisation as well as sharing of information. The technology of RFID is seen to
be lying at the development basis but the particular concept of IoT has been hugely spread by
involving a number of new emerging technologies like 2D codes of bar, sensors which are
wireless, 3G and the 4G communication and also all the various technologies of localization
(Mittelstadt 2017).
Research Questions
 What are the new technologies which are being involved in IoT bringing number of issues?
 What are the ethical issues related IoT?
 What are the main characteristics of Internet of Things which may be causing a huge number
of problems related to ethics?
 What are the impact of the technologies as well as characteristics of IoT upon the ethical
behaviour?

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Literature Review
There are a number of full new emerging technologies which are seen to be integrated
into the Internet of Things like RFID, sensors, NFC, 3G, 4G and so on. RFID is mainly a
technology which is seen to be utilising a number of fields which are electromagnetic to all the
objects which are identified automatically by properly labelling them with a single chip or rather
two antennae. This particular chip is also known as tag (Sholla, Naaz and Chishti 2017). This tag
possess with the capability of sending a unique code which will be electronic particularly read by
a specific user which are seen to be placed anywhere (AboBakr and Azer 2017). All of these tags
are totally different and RFID has the capability of automatically tracking several objects
involving all those who are seen to be attached to all the people like driving license or tags of
time and also those which are injected with the skin of human or an animal. Thus, an inventory is
made upon the spot for several products in particularly a warehouse or the basket of shopping
within a supermarket. All of these can be even attached to all the cell phones as well for a
number of reasons.
On the other hand, all the sensors which are involved in all the objects which are
connected are seen to be of several natures like proximity, ambient light and some others. It has
been observed that only a very small part of all the devices which are electronic which are sold
nowadays are not involving sensors (Gandhi et al. 2018). There are at least 10 sensors in
maximum of the smartphones or rather the tablets. They are seen to have been playing an
essential role in the establishment of relation in between all the different parameters of the
physical world and the virtual world and they also allow all the objects in reacting to all the
alterations from the particular environment where they are seen to be placed (Fernandes et al.
2015).

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IoT is seen to be utilising all the several technologies of localisation (Nicolescu et al.
2018). There are a number of devices which are seen to be available possessing with the
capability of localising certain kind of object at a particular moment and GPS is considered to be
the most popular one (Leggat 2017). GPS is mainly a particular system which has been both
financed as well by the department of defense and it utilises a number of satellites for monitoring
the specific position which is mainly held by the user by depending upon the place which he is
actually in (Murthy and Kumar 2015). The GPS is seen to be used anywhere in the entire world
involving all the ships as well as planes. On the other hand, NFC is mainly a device of radio
having a frequency of 13.56 MHz which has the capability of establishing communication in
between both the objects which are within a particular area of about 20cm (Kernaghan 2014).
The exchange of data can even reach to a maximum of about 424kbit/s and the time for making
the connection is much smaller than 1/10seconds. Some of all the possible uses of NFC involves
all the payments which are mainly contactless with help of a simple approach of the cell phone to
any special reader, sharing a lot of information in all the social networks, replacement of all the
cards of identity and the keys of doors.
3G is particularly an acronym for mainly the third generation of all the cell phones. The specific
technology has the capability of transferring both voice as well as data involving a number of
videos which further allows for software download, email and an instant sharing of information
with the help of messages (Rathore et al. 2017). On the other hand, 4G can be considered as a
combination in between the WiMax and 3G. WiMax is seen to be possessing a much wider area
of coverage and a broader band as well as compared to Wi-Fi. 4G mainly combines the particular
space of huge coverage of 3G with the speed of WiMax. The outcome is mainly the access of the

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cell phone to all the speed of Ethernet in several networks which are mainly local and also in the
ones which are larger as well.
There are a quite a less amount of research regarding how the combination of all of
technologies will be mentioning a number of characteristics of IoT which will leading to a
number of problems related to ethics (Weber et al. 2013). The combination of all of these
technologies has the capability of creating all the environments of the fiction of science within
which much more activities are going to be accomplished which are unrelated to all the objects
around us (Leone 2017). All other uses of Internet of Things which are potential will be
particularly involving all those which are mainly related to all the households, smart cities and
several monitoring devices of health. There are a number of characteristics of IoT which may be
causing a number of problems related to ethics:
Ubiquity and omnipresence- the specific user is seen to be attracted to IoT and totally devoured
by it and there is no way out which will be clearer or rather any way for giving up utilizing all
the artifacts (Rizza and Draetta 2014).
Ambiguity- the particular distinction in between all the natural objects as well as artifacts and
beings will be much more tough for making as a consequence of an easily transfer from one
particular category into some other based upon tags and the absorption in all the artifact’s new
networks (Caron et al. 2016).
Ultra-connectivity-the connections or rather the links will be increasing a lot in number and also
reach all the scales of people and object which will be unprecedented and hence there huge
quantity of the data which is transferred and the number of products will be increasing to a great
extent and there remains a chance that they may be used maliciously (Iansiti 2017).

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Autonomous behaviour- the objects which are interconnected may interfere in a number of
human events spontaneously in several unexpected ways for all the users. All of these people
will be actually be a part of all the environments of IoT with all the devices as well as artifacts
and hence a number of hybrid systems are created with a behavior which will be totally
unexpected. The increasing development of IoT will be leading to a number of behaviors which
will be emerging without all the users who fully understands the particular environment which
they are actually exposed to.
Included intelligence- the particular intelligence has been incorporated which particularly
makes all the different objects to be seen as several substitutes for the social life and all the
objects will be both dynamic as well as intelligent with a particular behavior which will be
emerging and they will actually the extensions of both the mind of human and the body
(Condoluci et al. 2018). Being totally deprived of all of such devices will be leading to a huge
number of problems and this can be seen by all the teenagers who are mostly considering
themselves to be handicapped socially without any smart phone or rather social media.
Difficulty in controlling- The control of IoT and the governance will not be at all centralized as
a particular consequence of several hubs, data as well as switches. The flow of information will
be occurring very much easily and all the transfers will be becoming much quicker as well as
cheaper and controlling will be becoming very much difficult. There will also be appearing a
number of emerging properties as well as phenomenon which will be needing both the
governance and monitoring in particular way which will be quite adequate and this will be
influencing a lot further in both the accountancy and also the activities of controlling.
Ethics mainly in the field of TIC mainly refers to the utilization of all the standards of
social behavior and the maximum of all the debates which are ethical mostly appeared to be

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around all the accessibility, private information use, property as well as accuracy. A particular
ethical behavior will be requiring the enforcement of the information’s property right, ensuring
information access, ensuring information integrity and also enforcing the basic right of the
private life. As per the right of property upon information and data is considered, there are a
number of difficulties which are seen to be appearing from the appropriate author’s
identification. A particular question can be taken as an example which asks about the particular
person who will be considered to be the data owner which has been retrieved by the object’s
sensors linked to the IoT. This question is very much difficult to imagine at this particular point.
Whenever the information is mainly data which is wither financial or personal, things will be
becoming much more serious. The omnipresence of IoT will be making a number of boundaries
in between all the spaces involving both the private and the public one which will be invisible
and people will not be able to know regarding where will their information be ending up. Most of
the objects will be equipped with several sensors and will be sent in huge quantities and in a
number of ways through several networks which will be bringing prejudice to the private life of
the individual. With the help of several technologies like RFID, NFC and GPS, the particular
geographic place where a particular person is present and all of his movements from once
specific place to the other can be found with an ease without any of his knowledge. The
particular information which will be collected from a special chip implanted with the consent of
the person may be utilized maliciously to a great extent. There may be a high chance that
individual profiles can also be created by depending upon their habits of consumption and there
also be a number of outsiders which may be very much evil making a number of decisions
mainly related to them.

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As per the accessibility of information is considered, if an attack which is mainly
contemporary on a particular PC may cause a huge amount of loss of information, attack of any
virus or by any hacker in IoT may have an influence which will be a direct one upon the lives of
the people. There can be an example which will be described by the control system interfering of
car linked to IoT. It can be seen that this particular control system interfering of car may be
endangering all the passenger’s life. All such type of attacks are already seen to be proven. As
per some of the recent study, it has been observed that some sales has been mentioned upon the
black market of the worm of computer named Stuxnet and all the IT security experts are saying
that it can be utilized for attacking any kind of physical target which will be directly related to all
the computers. The set of all the systems which are vulnerable is considered to be almost endless
and it will be involving all the systems of electric heating, networks of food distribution,
hospitals, systems of traffic lights and networks of transport. All the various scenarios of attack
which will be starting from here will be much more scaring (Fritsch, Shklovski and Douglas-
Jones 2018). The divide which is mainly digital is going to be increasing in the IoT as it is going
to be understood only by all the experts (Joseph et al. 2017). It is going to be quite debatable
whether there is a possibility of fair distribution of all the costs and the benefits and also the
presence of several equal opportunities during the access of all the advantages of IoT. Moreover,
the sharing of information from one particular device to the other will be influencing all the lives
of people in a number of ways which are going to be very much tough for imagining till there
will be no legal or coherent frame which will be democratic for delineating all the several limits
of the process.

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Methodology
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is mostly considered for analysing as well as developing a particular
study in a detailed manner. There are generally three kinds of philosophies of research which are
realism, positivism and interpretivism. In this particular research study, positivism philosophy of
research is going to be utilised as it will be helping a lot in investigating all the issues in both
critical as well as logical manner. It has to be clearly understood that the particular research
philosophy of positivism will be mainly derived from all the experiences which will be sensory
and the analysis will be based upon the facts. Other two philosophies are rejected as all these
philosophies will be depending upon each and every individual and that particular perception
will be varying from one particular person to the other.
Data Collection Method
This particular study will be depending upon the collection of both the secondary as well
as the primary data sources. The data which will be primary is going to be collected by several
means of different sources like interview as well as survey and the secondary sources will be
involving all the types of data which are seen to available in a form which will be printed or in
the platform which will be online.
Technique of data analysis
For carrying out the quantitative data analysis which will be collected by means of
surveys, the data which will be collected will be transferred into percentages and numeric for
gaining a data of comparison of the data which is collected. The data can then be converted into
several graphs as well as charts for presenting a graphical representation of the same. For

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evaluating the data which will be qualitative, an approach mainly a thematic one will be finally
written by considering a number of themes which are seen to be related directly to the topic of
research.
Detailed Project Plan
Gantt Chart
Activities 1st
to 3rd
Week
4th
to 10th
week
11th
to 13th
Week
14th
to 17th
Week
18th
to 21st
Week
22nd
to 23rd
Week
24th
Week
Topic selection 
Collection of datafrom
secondary sources
 
Layout creation 
Literature review   
Collected data
Analysis and
interpretation
  
Data findings  