Explained: What is the Internet of Behaviour?

Youngsters use the internet for multiple purposes starting from school projects to surfing music watching movies, so on and so forth. If we put together everything we do on the internet as a group of individual activities, we will be able to chalk out the internet of behaviour or IoB. Since this is a concept we are already using deeply in our daily lives, let’s find out how it works.  

What is IoB and how does it function?   
The Internet of Behaviour refers to the gathering of internet usage data that offers important information on the user’s mentality, interests, and preferences. From the perspective of behavioural psychology, IoB tries to comprehend a user’s preferences and marketing requirements from data acquired from the user’s online activities. IoB uses a mix of technology, psychology and marketing to promote goods and services based on actual, individual data.  

From where does the IoB get our behavioural data? 
A discussion on IoB is incomplete without the mention of IoT.  The Internet of Things (IoT) is the interconnected network of physical smart devices that we use for any activity concerning the internet. An Alexa speaker, a Samsung mobile, an Airtel connection, a Spotify account accessed on the speaker – and all devices and apps connected in this way is an example of IoT. And the info these companies are getting from this inter-connected usage is IoB. 

Where do we see IoB and IoT in action?  
IoB and IoT as a combination, as we explained above, is seen in the way user interfaces are designed, in the search engine and shopping suggestions we find, and in all apps that need to use our behaviour as guide. This includes health, education, gaming, and even personal safety apps. Even apps that we use to order food and commute regularly use this approach of understanding our behaviour and suggesting solutions and options accordingly.  

What is the biggest problem with IoB?  
IoB is technically easy to handle, but ethically and psychologically challenging. For ethical and legal reasons, it is necessary to protect user data security, offer clear terms and conditions to users and maintain customer privacy.