State of the Connected World 2020

The report identifies critical governance gaps in the IoT ecosystem, particularly in societal benefit, equity, safety, and privacy. It highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated certain IoT use cases while exposing vulnerabilities in security and human rights. The authors argue that current governance—comprising laws and industry standards—lags behind technological advancement, leading to a fragmented global landscape. To address this, the World Economic Forum and the Global IoT Council propose a Global Action Plan focused on public education, cybersecurity best practices, inclusive adoption, and cross-sector data sharing.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted IoT demand, increasing the use of health technology and smart home devices while temporarily reducing adoption in traditional enterprise IoT.
• Governance of IoT is currently immature and fails to keep pace with technology, with the most significant gap being the failure to ensure IoT provides shared societal benefits rather than increasing the digital divide.
• Safety and security are perceived as the highest risk areas, particularly in consumer IoT, due to a lack of global standards and the increasing number of attack points.
• Privacy is compromised by the pervasiveness, proximity, and granularity of IoT data collection, often combined with opaque value chains where data is shared with third parties.
• A lack of interoperability and the prevalence of 'walled gardens' created by large tech companies hinder economic scale, increase costs for consumers, and create vendor lock-in for governments.
• IoT risks include the potential for job loss through automation and the creation of a 'second class of privacy citizenship' where only those who can pay extra can avoid data monetization.
• The proliferation of IoT devices is contributing to a massive increase in e-waste, for which no global recycling solution currently exists.
• Regional perceptions of IoT risk vary: North America and Europe report higher concerns regarding societal equity, while Asia-Pacific stakeholders emphasize interoperability gaps.

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). State of the Connected World 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_State_of_the_Connected_World_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. State of the Connected World 2020. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_State_of_the_Connected_World_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=State of the Connected World 2020 |date=December 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_State_of_the_Connected_World_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020state, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{State of the Connected World 2020}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = dec, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_State_of_the_Connected_World_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }