Utilizing a Building Information Modelling Environment to Communicate the Legal Ownership of Internet of Things-Generated Data in Multi-Owned Buildings

Abstract

In multi-owned buildings, a community of residents live in their private properties while they use and share communal spaces and facilities. Proper management of multi-owned buildings is underpinned by rules related to health, safety, and security of the residents and visitors. Utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to collect information about the livable space has become a significant trend since the introduction of first smart home appliances back in 2000. The question about who owns the IoT generated data and under what terms it can be shared with others is still unclear. IoT devices, such as security camera and occupancy sensors, can provide safety for their owners, while these devices may capture private data from the neighborhood. In fact, the residents are sometimes not aware of regulations that can prevent them from installing and collecting data from shared spaces that could breach other individuals’ privacy. On the other hand, Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a rich 3D digital data environment to manage the physical, functional, and ownership aspects of buildings over their entire lifecycle. This study aims to propose a methodology to utilize BIM for defining the legal ownership of the IoT generated data. A case study has been used to discuss key challenges related to the ownership of IoT data in a multi-owned building. This study confirmed that BIM environment can facilitate the understanding of legal ownership of IoT datasets and supports the interpretation of who has the entitlement to use the IoT datasets in multi-owned buildings.

From BIM to digital twins: a systematic review of the evolution of intelligent building representations in the AEC-FM industry

“…A similar platform was also developed for sensing data visualization in BIM by (gnatov and Gade (2019). For multi-owned buildings, the use of BIM environment was also confirmed to be useful in communicating rights, restrictions, and responsibilities of the datasets collected by IoT devices (Atazadeh et al 2019). Based on BIM and Unity3D, Zhao et al (2019) developed a human-activity simulator named BIM 3 , which could be applied to evaluate activity-recognition methods for indoor environments.…”

“…Table 4 summarizes the overview of the studies in Level 3 with different research domains. Nakama et al 2015, Riaz et al 2015, Tomasi et al 2015, Pasini et al 2016, Suprabhas and Dib 2017, Kang et al 2018, Sava et al 2018, Zhong et al 2018, Atazadeh et al 2019, Ignatov and Gade 2019, Rashid et al 2019, Zhao et al 2019 Indoor Thermal Comfort Chang et al 2018, Ioannou et al 2018, Pasini 2018 Space Management Fang et al 2016, Teizer et al 2017, Ferreira et al 2018, Gong et al 2018, Ha et al 2018, Asadi et al 2019, Mahmood et al 2020 Hazards…”

Building Information Modelling and Internet of Things Integration for Facility Management—Literature Review and Future Needs

“…Among the reviewed articles, only two of these belongs to real estate and property management competence. Notable is the article of Atazadeh et al [84], which discusses the use of BIM for defining the legal ownership of IoT-generated data, which are part of the asset value. There are no specific regulations or laws that define the retrieval and use of IoT data considering the appropriate legal rights and responsibilities.…”

Internet of Things-Building Information Modeling Integration: Attacks, Challenges, and Countermeasures

“…Additionally, design analysis, safety improvement, productivity, and real-time equipment monitoring are made possible at various project phases [52]. According to Atazadeh et al (2019) and Oyekan et al (2021), IoT-BIM involves creating and managing objective information with a certain property, identification, and connection.…”