Summary

Users are surrounded by an ever-increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in households and public spaces. Yet, the users have no way of knowing what, or if anything, is being collected and/or shared by such IoT devices. These IoT devices present an increased level of privacy risk for consumers since they usually have a multitude of sensors collecting data from the space they are deployed in. Furthermore, the companies use vague language when they disclose their data collection practices. We would like to allow users to (i) visualize how/if they are tracked by IoT devices in an instrumented space and (ii) take action to limit that tracking. To achieve this goal, we created an IoT traffic visualization and tracker-blocker system that we call VBIT, which stands for Visualizing and Blocking of IoT Trackers. More specifically, first, we build a system to collect and analyze all network traffic going from and to an IoT device. The data collection system determines the fully qualified domain names contacted and classifies such domains as non-trackers or trackers. Second, we develop an interactive Mixed Reality (MR) IoT traffic visualization mobile application and a web application. Both applications provide the users with convenient user interfaces that display the network traffic collected in a comprehensible layout, and with a method to block/unblock any of the trackers detected. The MR application overlays a simplified version of the collected traffic data in the real world, whereas the web application provides a more granular representation of this data. The developed system enhances users’ awareness of the privacy risks associated with IoT devices and enables them to make informed decisions about blocking specific domains based on their privacy preferences.

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