Designing the Health-related Internet of Things: Ethical Principles and Guidelines

The conjunction of wireless computing, ubiquitous Internet access, and the miniaturisation of sensors have opened the door for technological applications that can monitor health and well-being outside of formal healthcare systems. The health-related Internet of Things (H-IoT) increasingly plays a key role in health management by providing real-time tele-monitoring of patients, testing of treatments, actuation of medical devices, and fitness and well-being monitoring. Given its numerous applications and proposed benefits, adoption by medical and social care institutions and consumers may be rapid. However, a host of ethical concerns are also raised that must be addressed. The inherent sensitivity of health-related data being generated and latent risks of Internet-enabled devices pose serious challenges. Users, already in a vulnerable position as patients, face a seemingly impossible task to retain control over their data due to the scale, scope and complexity of systems that create, aggregate, and analyse personal health data. In response, the H-IoT must be designed to be technologically robust and scientifically reliable, while also remaining ethically responsible, trustworthy, and respectful of user rights and interests. To assist developers of the H-IoT, this paper describes nine principles and nine guidelines for ethical design of H-IoT devices and data protocols

Trust and Money or Value Transfers: A study of the implications of global value conflict generated by UN Security Council Resolution 1373

Trust is a fundamental aspect of any given functional society. However, since late September 2001, the UN approach to global financial governance appears to have been driven by distrust of other less formalized money or value transfer (MVT) systems. At the core of this ‘Global Regulatory Effort’ (GRE) is UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1373, which mandated that states legislate to regulate all informal MVT systems. In particular, the MVT system known as ‘hawala’ was implicated by US authorities in the funding of the acts of terrorism committed on September 11 in 2001. Although the focus of this multilateral effort was predominantly on the Islamic hawala system, the regime targeted any MVT system not linked to an established commercial banking operation. In this way UNSCR 1373 put a line in the sand between trustworthy and untrustworthy financial service providers. The necessity of this unprecedented step was ostensibly in order to prevent any future global acts of terrorism and maintain international peace and security. However, the regime’s approach implicitly legitimized formal Westernstyle financial systems while delegitimising all others. This study contends that a significant implication of this securitized approach to global financial governance was the creation of a Global Trust Conflict (GTC). The Global Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 and the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender by El Salvador emphasize the significance of this Conflict. Moreover, the emergence of blockchain technology, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) represents a new and challenging front in which the implications of the Conflict may be significant. Particularly in terms of the prevailing nature of trust provision services throughout the global economy. As a result, new possibilities for the shape of global order have arisen as state and private interests compete to influence the future of remittances. This research argues that the UNSCR 1373 mandate is anti-competition and served to institutionalize distrust of non-bank MVT systems. This includes traditionally informal remittances and emergent decentralized value transfer systems built on blockchain technology. This thesis concludes that a Global Trust Conflict exists, which constitutes the most significant barrier to regulatory efficacy and compliance aimed at MVT systems

Social networking for web-based communities

In the 21st century, a new technology was introduced to facilitate communication, collaboration, and interaction between individuals and businesses. This technology is called social networking; this technology is now part of Internet commodities like email, browsing and blogging. From the 20th century until now, the internet has shaped the way organisations, academics and health sectors to interact, communicate, connect, and exchange knowledge around the world. Social networking can reduce enterprises cost, increase profit, and assist to develop new communication forms between consumers, stakeholders, vendors, suppliers, universities and health departments. However, this technology can create new challenges for education and its governance and management. Social networking is considered to be as a precursor to the new ways of 3D virtual presence that will gradually supplant the telephone and video conferencing and finally even diminish the face-to-face communication. This article examines these opportunities, challenges, and threats of social networking in organisation, education and healthcare sectors

Conceptual Paper: Sentience of Big Data towards User Privacy Concerns and Online Self-Disclosure Activities

Big data allows widespread use and exchange of user data, and this will lead to the possibility of privacy breaches. Governments and corporations will incorporate personal data from different sources and learn a great deal about people and in turn, raise concerns about privacy. This paper will provide a conceptual understanding on the antecedents towards user privacy concerns and online self-disclosure activities, which are the knowledge and perceived risks of big data. In this paper, big data knowledge is hypothesized to decrease privacy concerns, meanwhile perceived risks is suggested to increase the outcome. Based on the framework, propositions are formulated as a basis for the study that will follow

Big data for monitoring educational systems

This report considers “how advances in big data are likely to transform the context and methodology of monitoring educational systems within a long-term perspective (10-30 years) and impact the evidence based policy development in the sector”, big data are “large amounts of different types of data produced with high velocity from a high number of various types of sources.” Five independent experts were commissioned by Ecorys, responding to themes of: students' privacy, educational equity and efficiency, student tracking, assessment and skills. The experts were asked to consider the “macro perspective on governance on educational systems at all levels from primary, secondary education and tertiary – the latter covering all aspects of tertiary from further, to higher, and to VET”, prioritising primary and secondary levels of education

Understanding security risks and users perception towards adopting wearable Internet of Medical Things

This thesis examines users’ perception of trust within the context of security and privacy of Wearable Internet of Medical Things (WIoMT). WIoMT is a collective term for all medical devices connected to internet to facilitate collection and sharing of health-related data such as blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen level and more. Common wearable devices include smart watches and fitness bands. WIoMT, a phenomenon due to Internet of Things (IoT) has become prevalent in managing the day-to-day activities and health of individuals. This increased growth and adoption poses severe security and privacy concerns. Similar to IoT, there is a need to analyse WIoMT security risks as they are used by individuals and organisations on regular basis, risking personal and confidential information. Additionally, for better implementation, performance, adoption, and secured wearable medical devices, it is crucial to observe users’ perception. Users’ perspectives towards trust are critical for adopting WIoMT. This research aimed to understand users’ perception of trust in the adoption of WIoMT, while also exploring the security risks associated with adopting wearable IoMT. Employing a quantitative method approach, 189 participants from Western Sydney University completed an online survey. The results of the study and research model indicated more than half of the variance (R2 = 0.553) in the Intention to Use WIoMT devices, which was determined by the significant predictors (95% Confidence Interval; p < 0.05), Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Security and Privacy. Among these two, the domain Perceived Security and Privacy was found to have significant outcomes. Hence, this study reinforced that a WIoMT user intends to use the device only if he/she trusts the device; trust here has been defined in terms of its usefulness, easy to use and security and privacy features. This finding will be a steppingstone for equipment vendors and manufacturers to have a good grasp on the health industry, since the proper utilisation of WIoMT devices results in the effective and efficient management of health and wellbeing of users. The expected outcome from this research also aims to identify how users’ security and perception matters while adopting WIoMT, which in future can benefit security professionals to examine trust factors when implementing new and advanced WIoMT devices. Moreover, the expected result will help consumers as well as different healthcare industry to create a device which can be easily adopted and used securely by consumers

Privacy and Accountability in Black-Box Medicine

Black-box medicine—the use of big data and sophisticated machine learning techniques for health-care applications—could be the future of personalized medicine. Black-box medicine promises to make it easier to diagnose rare diseases and conditions, identify the most promising treatments, and allocate scarce resources among different patients. But to succeed, it must overcome two separate, but related, problems: patient privacy and algorithmic accountability. Privacy is a problem because researchers need access to huge amounts of patient health information to generate useful medical predictions. And accountability is a problem because black-box algorithms must be verified by outsiders to ensure they are accurate and unbiased, but this means giving outsiders access to this health information. This article examines the tension between the twin goals of privacy and accountability and develops a framework for balancing that tension. It proposes three pillars for an effective system of privacy-preserving accountability: substantive limitations on the collection, use, and disclosure of patient information; independent gatekeepers regulating information sharing between those developing and verifying black-box algorithms; and information-security requirements to prevent unintentional disclosures of patient information. The article examines and draws on a similar debate in the field of clinical trials, where disclosing information from past trials can lead to new treatments but also threatens patient privacy