Gooee gains IoT data privacy certification

Germany’s TÜV Rheinland approves the smart lighting specialist for cloud services, reviewing it for products.

With privacy and hacking one of the big concerns among potential Internet of Things lighting users, IoT lighting specialist Gooee said it has received the new data security certification from Germany’s international testing agency, TÜV Rheinland.

TÜV is 146-year-old group that tests a wide range of products and services including consumer electronics, domestic appliances, glass, toys, solar panels, medical devices, and more. Gooee launched the IoT program last year, in the months ahead of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took effect in May.

Gooee said it is the first company to win the €1.92 billion ($2.26 billion) group’s IoT stamp of approval. TÜV issued Gooee with one of its two IoT certifications, called IoT Protected Privacy Service, which focuses on data privacy by examining data encryption and cryptography standards, secure data handling, infrastructure access, and management across Gooee’s cloud computing and data analytic services.

LED luminaires equipped with Gooee chips and sensors can collect and send data to the cloud, which Gooee analyzes in order to provide businesses with advice and insights on a variety of operations, such as how to use space in an office building, how to lay out a retail store, and so forth. Cloud services play a big role in Gooee’s plans to push into the smart building market. Last year, it gave an equity share to its cloud computing partner, Evrythng.

Gooee’s smart lighting-based data service now has this TÜV certification.

“Privacy and security is a primary concern to any business looking at any kind of cloud solution,” said Gooee co-founder and chief technology officer Simon Coombes. “Having a tangible means to prove our compliance in both areas is essential for any cloud platform to be taken seriously.”

TÜV is also testing Gooee for a second seal of approval, called IoT Protected Privacy Product. In that case, the German agency is looking specifically at the vulnerability of four specific hardware stopping points in the Gooee infrastructure: the gateway, mesh access point, wireless interface module (WIM), and sensors.

The Cologne-based independent testing group undertakes a robust set of procedures, including attempting to penetrate and hack products and cloud services.

TÜV has around 20,000 employees worldwide. It began life in 1872 testing steam boilers, soon after a brewery accident led to the formation of a similar testing agency called TÜV SÜD.

MARK HALPERis a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).