Ownership

Criteria: When I buy a product, I own every part of it.

See this test in action

• Smart lock
• Smart pressure cooker
• Smart baby monitor

Notes:

• This test and accompanying indicator suffer from significant vagueness in their language. It is not clear what degree of control by the manufacturer (if any) over the product would be acceptable in order to pass this indicator. Many (if not most) consumer IoT devices are connected to cloud services run by the manufacturer in order to operate as desired by the purchaser, and that connection will give the manufacturer de facto control of the product. Even if a manufacturer has no desire or intent to withhold control or ownership, this indicator explicitly measures the retaining of control and not the intent to exercise it.

Methodology for Assessing Each Indicator

1) The company does not retain any control or ownership over the operation, use, inputs, or outputs of the product after it has been purchased by the consumer.

• Examine operation of product to determine whether control of its functions are routed through or otherwise dependent on connection to the manufacturer.
  • E.g. If the product has a connected mobile phone app, use network analysis tools to determine whether the mobile device and the product communicate directly or through a third server on the internet.
  • Note: A great number of the “smart” products sold today require a connection to a server managed by the manufacturer, meaning that most of them will fail this indicator.
• Review the product’s legal documents looking for any claims either explicit or implicit by the manufacturer of the ability to unilaterally terminate or modify the functionality of the product in any way.
• If there is no evidence of the manufacturer’s ability to deny the owner the full control over the device, mark PASS.
• If evidence of the ability to deny the owner of full control over the device is found, mark FAIL.