DWF Germany Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH (DWF) is an international full-service law firm with a firm emphasis on catering for businesses legal needs.

Role in the project:

DWF was asked to join the consortium to help bridge the gap between technical feasibility and legal compliance, as well as provide insight on ethical questions raised. For this purpose, DWF will provide advice to the consortium beginning in the planning stages of the project, and then review the design and its implantation as developed by the technical partner in the consortium.

As the proposed possible solution for increased security in IoT networks, platforms and in the open on the internet may very likely be dependent on the collection and processing of large amounts of data, some of which may be classifiable as personal data, numerous questions arise concerning the implications under data protection law, the confidentiality of telecommunications, and also questions on possible “ownership” of data. These questions, as well as other legal or ethical issues that may arise, will be evaluated by DWF throughout the project. However, the approach used by this consortium entails the involvement of DWF at a very early stage of the project, already in the planning and design phases. By this early involvement of legal advice, guiding principles like “privacy by design”, “privacy by default” and “security by design” may be better implemented than if legal counsel were involved only for a review of the finished product. In addition to DWF’s early involvement in planning and design, there will nonetheless be a review of the output of the work packages from a legal and ethical point of view. This later review shall ensure that the legal requirements identified at the beginning of the project will have been met by the implementation of the prototype before testing in the use cases, and also that a final product meets all relevant compliance requirements before going to market. At each iteration of this review, DWF will evaluate compliance with the identified legal and ethical standards, and provide feedback for the consideration of the consortium partners for each respective next step in the development of SecureIoT.

www.dwf.law