---
title: "Let owners read their device's data · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy/owner-data-access
id: IOT-44
level: Recommended
updated: 2026-10-27
build: a2a6bdfed830
tokens: 1101
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Let owners read their device's data directly

For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [Sensor data and privacy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy.md).

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers.md). Updated 2026-10-27.

- ID: IOT-44
- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Sensor data and privacy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy.md)
- Rule: Design every model so its owner can fetch the data it creates, with its metadata, in a documented machine-readable format at no charge. Offer it from the device or the app without a support request.
- Check: A test asks for the export of a test device and parses it against the published schema. Every field in the model's field list appears in it. The request needs no payment and no support ticket.
- How: Owners want to move to another app, check what the device recorded, or feed a home system. Build the export path into the first firmware and cloud API, since adding it later means a new data model. Use the fields from [list every sensor and every field that leaves the device](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy/sensor-inventory.md), so the export covers everything you collect. A local API on the device also keeps it useful when [the cloud ends](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/support-and-vulnerability-reports/end-of-life-plan.md). In the EU, the Data Act asks this by design of products placed on the market after 12 September 2026. See [give users the data from connected products](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/product-and-data-laws/data-act-connected-products.md). The account export itself follows [self-service export](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/accounts/profile-and-account-lifecycle/self-service-export.md).

## Examples

**Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

### Python example

```python
def export_problems(export: dict, field_list: set[str]) -> list[str]:
    exported = {field for reading in export["readings"] for field in reading}
    return [f"field {name} is collected but not exported" for name in sorted(field_list - exported)]
```

### Go example

```go
func ExportProblems(readings []map[string]any, fieldList []string) []string {
	exported := map[string]bool{}
	for _, reading := range readings {
		for name := range reading {
			exported[name] = true
		}
	}
	var problems []string
	for _, name := range fieldList {
		if !exported[name] {
			problems = append(problems, "field "+name+" is collected but not exported")
		}
	}
	return problems
}
```

## Sources

- [Data Act, Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, Article 3](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/2854/oj)

## Related rules

- IOT-31 [List every sensor and every field that leaves the device](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy/sensor-inventory.md) in Connected devices
- IOT-36 [Plan what the device does when support or the cloud ends](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/support-and-vulnerability-reports/end-of-life-plan.md) in Connected devices
- CMP-54 [Give users the data from connected products](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/product-and-data-laws/data-act-connected-products.md) in Compliance and governance
- ACC-55 [Let people export their data themselves](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/accounts/profile-and-account-lifecycle/self-service-export.md) in Accounts and identity

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy/owner-data-access">Agent Wranglers connected devices playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Ask before any camera or microphone turns on](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy/sensor-consent.md)
- [Sensor data and privacy](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/connected-devices/sensor-data-and-privacy.md)