Empowering Users Through a Privacy Middleware Watchdog

The ever-increasing number of interconnected devices in smart environments, i.e., homes and cities, is bolstering the amount of data generated and exchanged. These devices can range from small embedded platforms, such as those included in home appliances, to critical operational systems, such as traffic lights. However, this increasing adoption is raising significant security and privacy concerns. Although some researchers have already solved some of these issues, data privacy still lacks a viable solution, especially when considering a flexible, decentralized approach to avoid a central overseer. One of the biggest challenges regarding privacy is the lack of transparency about how data flows are mediated and regulated as, often, these resources share data with external entities without the users’ knowledge. We argue that a novel data-sharing control mechanism is required to properly control users’ privacy and their respective Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This work focuses on a middleware layer solution for the IoT devices, which allows the control of the data generated by the device by its owner. The platform places the user as an active participant in the data market, behaving as its own data intermediary for potential consumers by monitoring, controlling, and negotiating the usage of their data.