Our privacy is very important to most of us, even to the most high-profile celebrities. Social networking on the Internet has greatly magnified the risk of people unwittingly disclosing personal details on an unparalleled scale. The opportunity for misuse of personal information has therefore also greatly increased.

The emergence of the "Internet of Things" (IoT) means there will be a sustained increase in the number of intelligent devices enabled for the Internet - trillions of them. These devices will increasingly communicate and interact with each other on a continual and more or less ad hoc basis. Because the majority of these devices will also interact with the human beings who own and use them, the risk of unintentional loss of privacy will also increase.

The IoT promises many benefits. Take, as a single example, domestic energy saving. A home equipped with intelligent appliances, intruder alarm system and energy-saving control systems can potentially interact with other personal systems such as PDA, mobile phone, and on-board car system. Between them they can exchange data and collaborate to automatically secure the house and minimise energy consumption when you leave, and then manage the control of heating and ventilation systems to ensure that the optimum levels are met just as you return home again. But will we able to trust these systems to keep our data secure and respect our privacy of information?

Among the most important challenges facing the IoT is the ability to achieve an open and unified infrastructure for true interoperability, and at the same time to convince both commercial and private users that it is trusted and secure. However, there is currently the potential danger of an ever-increasing web of organisation- and domain-specific intranets due to parallel development of disparate technologies and standards and continued lack of trust. Just think about how many separate control interfaces already exist in a modern home. Do we really want more? How many authentication mechanisms do we already have to interact with in order to protect our identity and privacy?

At best, the products enabled for the IoT will address these challenges in a responsible way. If they don't, then the least that I will expect of them is the ability to opt out and disable all the so-called beneficial features because I don't trust their respect for my privacy - I like to keep myself to myself!