IoT Service Store: A Web-based System for Privacy-aware IoT Service Discovery and Interaction

Internet of Things (IoT) services collect and analyze sensor data to provide users with intelligent functionality tailored to their needs. However, users are often unaware of privacy risks relating to sensor data collection and the inferences possible from this data. Even if aware of the data collection and possible inferences, users lack ways to manage the collection, processing, and transmission of the data. To address this problem, we designed and implemented a novel web-based system called IoT Service Store (ISS) that allows users to easily browse nearby IoT services, understand the privacy implications of these IoT services, and control the collection and usage of sensor data. To better inform users about the potential privacy risks in using IoT services, ISS displays detailed information on what personal information might be inferred from the sensor data being collected. ISS also allows each user to give a rating or to view other users’ ratings regarding the perceived utility-privacy tradeoff for each IoT service. ISS is designed to communicate with IoT services to modify those services’ data collection and usage practices, according to a user’s privacy preferences. Using the preferred privacy settings in the proposed system, users will be more confident in their decisions of whether to subscribe to IoT services and less concerned with privacy risks in using the services.