Internet of Things will require new forms of consent, warns EU working party

One-time consent for personal data processing 'outdated' for Internet of Things, suggest EU Article 29 Working Party

The so-called Internet of Things will require new forms of informed consent as a legal basis for the processing of personal data, according to the European Union's Article 29 Working Party.

The watchdog claims that "classical mechanisms used to obtain individuals' consent may be difficult to apply in the Internet of Things" because current mechanisms only provide a "low-quality consent". Current consent mechanisms were devised in the 1980s when computerisation was only just beginning to affect personal data on a large scale.

According to law firm Pinsent Masons, the EU is shifting thinking from the idea of consent as a one-time approval to a more granular, case-by-case approach.

"The working party's guidance and recommendations underpins the idea that the process of obtaining consent has evolved from being a one-time exercise that businesses could achieve by stating terms of data use in consumer contracts or privacy policies," said Pinsent Masons lawyer Kathryn Wynn.

She continued: "Instead, it is now clear that businesses need to have an ongoing dialogue with consumers about how they plan to use their data to account for the fact that technological change is delivering new ways for that data to be used that were previously unforeseen."

The working party suggested that device manufacturers should enable more decentralised control over and processing of personal data in the new data-driven environment so that consumers could gain a better understanding of what data of theirs is collected and how it is used. However, this may lead to a reduction in the level of personal data shared with manufacturers and service providers.

"The challenge for businesses is finding a technological mechanism that enables them to explain data use plans to consumers and simultaneously allows consumers to manage their preferences and which is not a cumbersome tool," Wynn added.