Can Internet of Things be

of the People,

by the People, 

& for the People ?

Mei Lin Fung, early CRM Pioneer with Tom Siebel, Marc Benioff

Chair, People-Centered Internet co-founded with Vint Cerf

Chair, IEEE Technical Committee, Sustainability, Society for the Social 

Implications of Technology

Co-chair, UN Women Commission on the Status of Women: Expert 

Roundtable for Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, Middle-East) 2023 1st Report 

on Digital Innovation

Lead author Japan G7 Presidency Think7 policy brief People-Centered 

Science and Digital Transformation: A Practical Proposal for G7 & G20

Led the People Centered Internet team who contributed to 11 of 70 

policy papers for 2022 German G7 Presidency

Worked at Oracle (5y), Intel (5y), Shell (3y), US DoD (4 years, last 2y as 

Socio-Technical Lead for the Federal Health Futures Initiative)

Fellow of Hasso Plattner Institute, Berlin, Germany

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 1
3 Barriers to 

Global IoT Adoption

Security and Privacy 

No assurance of Responsibility 

by Maker or Operator

Specific Devices have no unique 

identity, trackable through its 

lifecycle

Expensive custom devices inhibit 

widespread use and increasing 

functionality; Lack of standards 

increase upfront and operating cost 

Internet of Things is a 

system of interrelated 

computing devices, 

mechanical and digital 

machines, objects, animals 

or people, provided with 

unique identifiers and the 

ability to transfer data over 

a network

without requiring 

• human-to-human or 

• human-to-computer 

interaction.

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 2
L L I I

IoT

Agenda

1. License

2. Label

3. Identity

4. Inter-operability

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 3
Responsible

Tech 

Checklist

For Labeling

centered on the person or people; 

respectful of the natural environment and stewardship of the 

planet; 

sustainable by design; 

preserves desired privacy and security by design;

protects personal information with timely, specific informed 

consent on the private or public use of data; 

accountable to the people who use it and to the planet —in 

addition to the people who fund and manage it; 

ethical by the IEEE Code of Ethics; 

deployed in solutions that are appropriate to the context of the 

problem (not all problems need technology);

deployed where a human is in the loop with respect to 

overseeing and managing technological systems; and 

developed with due respect for justice, fairness, the law, and 

public interest. 

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 4

IEEE Planet Positive Guiding Principles (link)
Keep Improving the 

design, development, 

use, and disposal of 

technology as an 

iterative, cyclic 

Dynamic Process

Feedback by 

designers, 

developers, public 

interest advocates, & 

citizens can Identify 

harms & unforeseen 

consequences

Adaptive IoT 

Licensing & Labeling 

allows for evolving 

appropriate, timely 

response at each 

stage of each IoT 

device's lifecycle

People consume 

technology 24/7, and 

it affects our health 

and lives. 

IEEE Planet Positive Guiding Principles (link)

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 5

PCI: Licensing and Labeling

at Internet Speed and Scale
License & Label IoT

Each wave of technology has 

unforeseen consequences: 

fire, language, writing, 

printing, electricity, 

transistors, AI, IoT... 

We can learn from drug and 

nutrition labeling, which 

recognized the need to alert 

people about how they are 

affected by what they 

consume. 

Design, development, use, and disposal 

of technology is a dynamic ongoing 

process. Licensing can allow for evolving 

appropriate, timely response to

negative impacts—unforeseen 

consequences of technology 

on people and planet

positive impacts—

opportunities to relieve 

suffering, increase flourishing 

and equity, and achieve the 

UN SDG Goals

Advanced technologies will 

not lead to nor generate 

beneficial outcomes 

automatically

for technology 

is only as good 

as we are

It is up to those of us who 

are technologists to decide 

how technology is 

designed and 

developed 

&

whether we believe 

that our technologies 

are being built to 

work and serve in the 

best interests of 

humanity. 7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 6

IEEE Planet Positive Guiding Principles (link)
Labeling - U.S. Cyber Trust Mark BRAVO ! 

• Cybersecurity labeling program for internet-connected devices 

to be launched by 2024 (link) 

• White House and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 

Participation from several major retailers, including Amazon, Best 

Buy, Google, Logitech, and Samsung.

The program draws on voluntary commitments from manufacturers 

who have agreed to a certification program based on a set of 

cybersecurity criteria developed by the National Institute of 

Standards and Technology (NIST), including “unique and strong 

default passwords, data protection, software updates, and incident 

detection capabilities.”

Manufacturers who agree to certification would be able to use a 

shield logo label on their products, signaling to consumers they 

have agreed to the NIST standards. The program will be 

administered by the FCC, with support from the Cybersecurity and 

Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 

Regulators including the Department of Justice will designate 

oversight and enforcement standards. 

Recommends

Digital Common Law

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 7

Recommends: 

Participation & 

Feedback Process

Iterative 

Improvement 
Technology Labeling

IEEE Planet Positive Guiding Principles (link)

1. Responsible and ethical leadership from individuals, 

organizations, and communities - Leadership requires 

collaboration and cooperation with all stakeholders 

impacted by decisions 

2. Justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion 

3. Energy systems transformation 

4. Mitigation and adaptation

5. The regenerative imperative and a circular economy

6. Balance between today’s needs and the needs of the 

future

7. Alignment of global goals with local goals and actions

8. Culture of sustainability

9. Responsible use of technology and technology labeling

10. Knowledge-based decisions, transparency, and 

accountability

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 8
Get and Track feedback throughout the lifecycle of a 

device at clear checkpoints

• track and measure deployment of technology 

at the innovation and experimentation stage

• implement a standardized feedback process 

for innovation with checkpoints to catch 

dangerous or irreconcilable issues, unforeseen 

consequences

• ‘responsible technology’ labels for robustly 

tested technology so buyers are informed

• certification of responsible technology in use 

”by whom” and “for what purpose” so users 

know

• certification of responsible disposal of 

technology when End of Life is reached

Above is from the IEEE Planet Positive Report: link

Recommendation:

Invite Insurance Companies to participate in 

standards development, licensing & labeling design 

and definition, identity and interoperability formore

affor7/25dab/2023le “IoT insurability” People Centere Image from https://online.stanford.edu/courses/xee100-introduction-internet-things d Internet, July 19, 2023 9
Identity evolves over the Lifecycle of an IoT Device

https://medium.com/dashbored/the-iteration-cycle-best-or-worst-cycle-a7ab9f0319af

Time ->

7/19/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 10
Inter-operability for IoT

Massive Commercial WIN for NIST to drive 

US Global Digital Leadership

Many new entrants, interoperability needed to 

increase functionality, and drive down costs

Just one example: Agriculture 

• IoT can be adopted to the full range of 

farm types & sizes, products, climates, 

constraints

• California – IoT here has global use cases

• More than 400 types of crops

• Full range of terrain, climate zones, etc.

• Water is a major issue around world

R. Tse 7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 Photo from https://landportal.org 11 /node/72356
3 Barriers to 

Global IoT Adoption

Security and Privacy – no assurance 

of Responsibility by Maker

Specific Devices have no unique 

identity trackable through its 

Lifecycle

Expensive custom devices inhibit 

widespread use and increasing 

functionality; Lack of standards 

increase upfront and operating cost 

3 Recommendations for 

Global IoT Adoption: L L I I

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 12

Label

License

Responsible Tech Checklist & 

LABEL for each uniquely identified 

IoT LICENSE’d device

ID

Unique IDENTITY for each specific 

Device through its Lifecycle - via 

timestamp

INTEROP

INTEROPERABILITY & Standards

For Internet Speed and Scale 

Internet’s Interop example (link)
Can Internet of Things IoT be

of the People,

by the People, 

& for the People ?

YES! with L L I I D 

1. Licensing IoT

2. Labeling IoT

3. Identity for IoT – over lifecycle of device

4. Inter-operability – for massive WIN !

(if we put the guardrails in place for 1, 2, 3) 

5. Bonus Recommendation: Digital Common Law (link) has been proposed at G7 

Germany and G7 Japan Think7.org, UN Global Digital Compact, to be proposed G7 

Italy G7 to evolve laws and regulations always obeying national law, where local 

communities can make their own decisions while citing precedents from elsewhere

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 13
Our Final 

Recommendation:

The People Centered 

Internet Community 

has the expertise and 

willingness to deliver 

on recommendations

We need to create a People Centered IoT that 

focuses the technology to be helpful, honest, 

and harmless. 

It is likely in the next 20 years we will have 

trillions of Intelligent IoT achieving complex 

goals. 

We need to ensure these goals are aligned 

with humanity’s goals, the 

UN SDGs by 2030 .... & thereafter.

D. Houhulin

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 14
Appendix

Page

15 Mei Lin Fung bio

16-20 PCI Community Input

21 Label references

22 Identity references

Mei Lin Fung Chair and cofounder with Vint Cerf of People 

Centered Internet is an early pioneer of customer relationship 

management (CRM) and is Alumni of Shell, Intel & Oracle. She 

holds a master’s in Finance from MIT. She was socio-technical lead 

for US DoD’s Federal Health Futures and founding chair of IEEE 

Technical Committee on Sustainability for the Society for Social 

Implications of Technology. Together with Douglas Engelbart she 

organized 2008 the Program for the Future and with Vint Cerf she 

organized 2014 the 40th Anniversary of the Internet. She is a Fellow 

of the Hasso Plattner Institute, recognized for her work on Digital 

policy including Clean-IT and energy-efficient computing. She 

hold the Keynote on Decade of Digital Transformation at the World 

Bank IFC Global SME Financing Forum and convenes the Digital 

Cooperation and Diplomacy network, a monthly forum for UNDP 

and ITU to interact with public and private sector thought leaders. 

She chairs Digital Week @UN Science Summit and champions in 

the ITU, Regional Digital Cross Sector regulation. Mei Lin was 

Vice Chair for Internet Inclusion for the IEEE Internet Initiative 

and served as one of the two co-chairs of the Expert Roundtable for 

Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle-East which developed 

recommendations for the 2023 UN Commission on the Status of 

Women report on Innovation and Technological change, and 

Education in the digital age. She is organizing the 50th Anniversary 

of the Internet with ITU and IEEE. Mei Lin was born in 

Singapore, studied, worked and married in Australia and lived in 

Silicon Valley, California for 4 decades. She led the 2022 policy 

input to the German Think7 process with 11 policies out of 70 

policies in the final Communique contributed to by the People 

Centered Internet Community. She is the lead author for the Japan 

2022 Think7 policy brief People-Centered Science and Digital 

Transformation: A Practical Proposal for the G7 and G20.

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 15
People Centered Internet Community Input 1/5

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 16
People Centered Internet Community Input 2/5

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 17
People Centered Internet Community Input 3/5

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People Centered Internet Community Input 4/5

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People Centered Internet Community Input 5/5

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 20
References on Labels

• Brewers, Paula. “The History of Labels.” Navitor. ImpressionsBlog. 4 Sept. 2013. 

• Cavoukian, Ann. Privacy by Design: The 7 Foundational Principles. Toronto, ON: Information and Privacy -

Commissioner of Ontario, 2011. 

• “EstándaresIberoamericanos” (“Standards for Personal Data Protection for Ibero-American States”). Red 

Iberoamericana de Protección de Datos, Documentos, EstándaresIberoamericanos (website). 

• European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European 

Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016. Official Journal of the European Union. 4 May 2016. 

• Food Insight. “The Nutrition Facts Label: Its History, Purpose and Updates.” Food Insight (website). 9 Mar. 

2020.Janssen, Wallace F. “The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels.” FDA Consumer. June 1981. 

• Tiberio, Guy. Vehicle Information Labels: The Stickers You Need to Know! (slide presentation). 

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 21
References on IoT identity 

Manufacturer usage description (MUD) draft RFC: 

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8520 

Eliot Lear at Cisco has a couple of posts explaining the background and 

how it can help with some of the issues that have cropped up with IoT:

https://ofcourseimright.com/?p=1859 

https://ofcourseimright.com/?tag=mud

7/25/2023 People Centered Internet, July 19, 2023 22