Governing the Internet of Everything

Abstract

"Since the term was first coined in the late 1990s, the 'Internet of Things' has promised a smart, interconnected world enabling your toaster to text you when your breakfast is ready, and your sweatshirt to give you status updates during your workout. This rise of “smart products” such as Internet-enabled refrigerators and self-driving cars holds the promise to revolutionize business and society. But the smart wave will not stop with stuff, with related trends such as the Internet of Bodies now coming into vogue. It seems that, if anything, humanity is headed toward an Internet of Everything. Yet it is an open question whether security and privacy protections can or will scale along with this increasingly crowded field, and whether law and policy can keep up with these developments. This Article explores what lessons the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) and Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) Frameworks hold for promoting security, and privacy, in an Internet of Everything, with special treatment regarding the promise and peril of blockchain technology to build trust in such a massively distributed network. Particular attention is paid to governance gaps in this evolving ecosystem, and what state, federal, and international policies are needed to better address security and privacy failings."