„Stop it, Fridge!“ – Legally Secure and Interest-Based Data Sharing in the Age of Modern (Cyber) Technology

Abstract

As part of the modern Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are particularly indispensable. The reason these devices fit so seamlessly into our everyday lives is that they constantly generate, process and evaluate data (using the Internet) and can react smoothly to circumstances – such as the refrigerator that automatically reorders missing food or a maintenance monitory system in smart homes that assigns digital maintenance orders to the responsible tradesmen. These data flows and underlying information are the subject of a wide variety of legal projects: Europe aims to become a pioneer of the data economy by providing access to available data accessible for further value and business models. Subject matter includes both personal data and non-personal data, such as IoT machine data. To achieve these political-economic goals, but also to ensure the interests of users and especially manufacturers in confidentiality and fair competition, we introduce the person of the neutral data intermediary: the data innovator.