Extract from Doug Austin’s article “Are You Thinking About IoT Devices for Litigation Yet? You Should Be.”
I don’t have to tell you that Internet of Things (IoT) devices are all over the place today. I’m sure many of you are using them and you’re probably using more than one device – I’ve stopped counting how many devices we use in our household. My daughter even has her own Amazon Echo Dot in her bedroom (because that’s where teenagers seem to spend more than 95% of their time these days).
But how often are they relevant to litigation? More and more often every day,
The Ubiquity of IoT Devices
IoT devices are the nonstandard computing devices that connect wirelessly to a network and have the ability to transmit data. These days, a lot of devices fit those criteria.That includes everything from smart bulbs to smart thermostats (like Nest thermostats) to Fitbits and Apple Watches to Ring doorbells to Amazon Echos (for what it’s worth, we have all of those in our household). It even includes pacemakers, car infotainment systems and shoes where you can press a button to order a pizza (if you think I’m making that last one up, Pizza Hut marketed Pie Tops II sneakers few years ago that did just that).
The possibilities are endless when it comes to potential devices that we use that are internet connectable today and the number of devices will only grow in the future.
