What is the Internet of Behaviors?
Are you interested in knowing about the internet of behaviors?
The growing use of mobile phones and an increasing number of interconnected devices based on IoT technology is paving way for the internet of behaviors. As humans are more connected to their electronic devices, businesses benefit from the user behavior data collected through these intelligent systems.
The result is a better understanding of user behavior and, ultimately, better marketing and service opportunities.
Let’s explore in detail what the internet of behaviors is, how it is possible, and what its benefits are.
What does the internet of behaviors mean?
The internet of behaviors is a combination of three areas of study; human behavior, edge computing, and the internet of things. It focuses on how people use technology.
The internet of behaviors platforms collect data and analyze it in the light of human behavioral psychology. The data is collected from multiple sources like wearable devices, home appliances, etc. The insights from the data help businesses formulate their sales and marketing strategies.
How does the Internet of Behaviors Work?
The working of the IoB or Internet of behaviors is as follows:
Data Collection
According to estimates by McKinsey, there will be approximately 10 devices per person by 2030. These are intelligent devices communicating and exchanging data with each other through IoT technology.
The data includes your current geographical location, your political affiliations, the food you ordered for lunch, the movie you watched recently, and so on. The amount of big data produced by IoT devices alone is expected to reach 73.1 Zettabytes in 2025.
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IoT data collection is done using sensors that gather information about physical conditions and digital activity. Devices connected over IoT can monitor and measure this data.
For example, a social media website measures how long you spend time on it, telematics can measure your usual vehicle speeding behavior, etc.
Moreover, data is collected from various platforms to perform a better analysis of a user’s behavior.
Data Analytics
The big data on user activity is of no use if we do not process it efficiently. Technologies like machine learning, natural language processing, etc., help to understand this data by identifying patterns of user behavior.
Human psychology helps to understand the reason behind certain human activity patterns that allow businesses to better understand consumer behavior.
Edge computing helps in on-device data processing instead of utilizing a remote server. All of the collected big data is not meaningful. Storing all this data is also not essential. Edge computing helps in the real-time aggregation of data. Only the data required for further processing is sent to the remote server.
This makes consumer data processing more efficient and also more secure without any need for communicating with third-party services.
You can read more about edge computing and how it augments native cloud computing in our blog here.
Benefits of the Internet of Behaviors Technology
Let’s next see the benefits of using the Internet of behaviors technology.
IoB in Advertising
Online advertisements allow businesses to reach a wider audience more easily and quickly. User behavior data helps refine this advertisement strategy. It enables target marketing by showing relevant ads to potential customers.
For example, your Google search for a particular product or even an interest in a certain product’s ad can direct relevant ads to your device, or if you have watched a certain movie, your online streaming service will start suggesting you the movies you might be interested in depending on your previous watch.
This shows that the internet of behaviors is not only about analyzing consumer behavior but also proactively understanding human psychology and how to influence it towards certain parameters by applying certain incentives or disincentives.
IoB in Insurance Industry
The insurance sector is a prominent use case of IoB. The internet of behaviors technology can be used to better understand the insurance customers like their lifestyle, habits, etc. This information helps in fraud prevention and the identification of low-risk customers.
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It also allows insurers to offer better and on-time services. For example, insurance companies for house insurance already use IoT-connected devices to monitor home appliances. Internet of behaviors can further help by analyzing the preferences of the insured regarding home comfort and safety.
IoB in Manufacturing
The Internet of behaviors is assisting the manufacturing industry in multiple ways. IoB helps to predict market demand with more accuracy.
Users’ behavior data gives an insight into the products that need to be produced frequently to meet future demand. It also saves from the unnecessary expenditure of producing products that are no longer popular among consumers and helps redesign the value chain.
Internet of behaviors also helps ensure workplace safety by giving valuable information on how employees are interacting with the environment. More efficient security measures can be taken in critical working environments like factories, etc., by performing real-time data analysis.
IoB in Healthcare
IoT-connected devices are frequently used in the healthcare sector. Wearable devices collect real-time user data, including sleeping patterns, heart rate, physical activities, etc.
Behavioral data collected through these devices gives insights to medical professionals into the health conditions and lifestyle habits of the patients. Caregivers are able to provide more personalized treatment to each person, like dietary plans, exercises, etc.
Challenges With the Internet of Behaviors
Some of the concerns and challenges that you may face with employing the internet of behaviors technology are as follows:
Cyber Security
Cyber threats are increasing with the extent of digital transformation we are having in our daily lives. Adopting smart devices to automate services and better understand customers means more vulnerabilities also.
Businesses employing the internet of technology and behaviors should actively implement measures to safeguard devices and environments from intrusions and cyber attacks. Some of the common cyber threats for IoT and IoB include botnets, ransomware, DNS threats, etc.
Regulatory Compliance
Strict compliance with regulatory standards is a major challenge while working with the internet of behaviors.
Regulatory compliance for IoT is used to mitigate the growing cyber risks concerning the device and network security, user data privacy, environment safety, etc. These can be industry standards or country-specific laws, like CE marking, FCE certifications, EMC testing, etc.
Data Privacy
Although user data is of prime importance for the adequate working of the internet of behaviors technology, maintaining the security and privacy of this data is equally challenging. Data privacy is a major concern after recent scandals of data breaches by big platforms like Facebook, Yahoo, etc., that collect users’ private data.
The collection and use of consumer sensitive data are now getting regulated, and companies that access sensitive data of their users for their services are now held accountable for their use and exposure.
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For example, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is an EU law for data protection and privacy in European Union countries. The US does not have a comprehensive data protection federal law at the moment, however, multiple national laws regulate the use of private data in certain industries.
Manipulation of User Data
It is also important to save consumers from manipulation by businesses that have access to all the data for their behavioral analysis.
Data on users’ online activities and recent preferences may help businesses in selling their services and products through manipulation from a human psychology perspective. For example, a business repeatedly suggests dietary plans to a health-conscious person.
Final Thoughts on Internet of Behaviors
Gartner predicts that by 2023, 40% of the people globally will be tracked digitally to influence service eligibility through the internet of behaviors. Such statistics show that it is the right time for businesses to start investing in the latest digital technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, IoB, etc., to better connect with customers and provide better services.
The use cases of linking users digitally to their actions through the internet of behaviors are many and in every industry. The question is to implement internet of behaviors technology successfully while meeting regulatory requirements and addressing ethical concerns effectively.
A competent team of software developers experienced in the latest technologies is essential to developing a market-competitive product that meets all the industry requirements. Read our guide on building a successful team of software engineers for your project.
If you are still looking for a credible software development partner, DevTeam.Space can help you with its field-expert software developers community experienced in developing software solutions utilizing emerging technological innovations.
Write to us your initial software project specifications, and one of our account managers will get back to you for more details on how we can help you implement the cutting-edge technology of the internet of behaviors in your business product.
FAQs on The Internet of Behaviors
The collection of data from different sources that users interact with, like mobile devices, location tracking wearable technologies, smart cars, smart household electrical devices, etc., analysis of this usage data to understand user interactions and application of these insights in digital marketing research and strategies to influence user behavior constitutes the internet of behaviors. The domain is challenging due to ethical and legal reasons but is continuously maturing with regulatory laws and compliance standards.
The benefits of understanding end users through real-time data using IoB with existing technologies like AI, IoT, etc., are many. Businesses are able to run targeted advertisements, know their potential customers, enhance customer experience, improve search experience optimization, etc. The use cases range from efficient insurance provision and effective healthcare to better product and marketing strategies.
An interesting example of an industry using the internet of behaviors is the insurance industry, where insurance providers can monitor the driver’s activity and the car’s environment through IoT-connected devices and access how an accident took place and whose fault it was.
Alexey Semeney
Founder of DevTeam.Space
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Alexey is the founder of DevTeam.Space. He is award nominee among TOP 26 mentors of FI's 'Global Startup Mentor Awards'.
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