The EU has been urged to abandon the privacy rules ‘it is so hung up about’ because they are hampering technological innovation.
A Brussels conference on the future of the future of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Europe on Thursday heard from key industry figures on the emergence of an IoT ecosystem.
Wim de Waele, the CEO of Belgium’s Eggsplore who has been in the ICT business for almost 30 years, stressed the need to work on large-scale pilots to experiment with technology.
“I would encourage the European Commission and local authorities to not only put the user in the middle but get rid of the privacy rules they are so hung up about,” he said.
He warned that such rules “are hampering the introduction of technologies” and could be safely relaxed in controlled environments.
“Organisations where ideas flow freely are the future,” De Waele told the audience of policymakers, technology experts and industry representatives.
“If organisations adapt they can be hotbeds of innovation. As a large organisation you have to think about how to build an ecosystem that captures external innovation.”
The ICT professional spoke of mass adoption rates for technology across sectors, but noted that the banking sector was lagging behind.
He highlighted the connection between an internet of humans, internet of data and internet of things. “We have to talk about user-centric, citizen-driven data,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to personalise customer experience so we have to look at the entire value chain.”
Huawei’s European head of IoT Karabet Krikorian, set out the company's key technology developments in the area explaining that the IT giant was actively working on the development of an IoT platform based on connectivity and application enablement, he said.
Krikorian highlighted a lack of standardisation in the IoT market, with many different types of application programming interfaces and various programming languages.
He said the example of a smart home based on remote control of sensors and remote management, and explained how a smart car system could automatically open a garage door or switch an entrance door light on based on remote sensors.
Huawei’s IoT platform for industry 4.0 includes an integrated IoT platform, IoT field integration and is focused on the connection between security and lifecycle management, said Krikorian.
He added that an important aspect for 4.0 was “industrial interconnect”. “We cannot separate industry from IoT” because of the rise in smart energy and smart logistics, he said.
And he predicted the emergence of new business models, with a fast time for market deployment particularly important for IoT.
The conference was organised by the Digital Enlightenment Forum, Huawei and the Parliament Magazine.