Awareness of Croatian Citizens about the Advantages and Disadvantages of IoT Devices and Their Safety

How knowledgeable are we about the Internet of Things? What do IoT devices mean to us in everyday life? The awareness of citizens of the Republic of Croatia will be discussed in this article on issues related to knowledge of IoT devices and their capabilities. For this paper, a survey has been conducted among the population between the ages of 19 and older on issues of familiarity with IoT devices, and an analysis of the responses was made. This paper shows how knowledgeable the citizens of the Republic of Croatia are about IoT devices, their capabilities, their security, and the possibility of omissions, data leaks, and violations of the GDPR, i.e., omissions with the sharing of their personal data. Considering that the global pandemic in the last two and a half years has stimulated computerization and the sudden expansion and ever-faster spread of IoT devices, the familiarity of EU citizens and knowledge about their capabilities has been called into question. There is also a viable need for educating and familiarizing the citizens of the Republic of Croatia with the capabilities of IoT devices and their advantages and disadvantages. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the research and gives recommendations for further research.