Every baby that is born in the future will have an IP address as well as a name, Cisco chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior told the women in tech leaders' lunch today.

She said babies of the future won’t just be identified by their name, and that the internet will be everywhere from your fridge to your car.

She said security and privacy were undergoing dramatic changes, with people willing to do more online and share more now.

“There needs to be a balance between convenience and intrusion. The more data certain apps have about you, the better they will work for you. In that case data sharing is acceptable.”

She told attendees of the women in tech leaders’ lunch at the Four Seasons that there is no point in having a smartphone if you don’t want to share any data.

Ms Warrior said networks see everything going through them, adding that network policies such as that adopted by Cisco will in the future change depending where you log in from.

"I can access confidential information about Cisco at work but maybe I won't be able to do so using the wifi in Starbucks. While I am entitled to see that information the network policy will change depending on my location. The network will be cleverer in that sense."

She said there is a misconception that tech companies provide hardware and software with less features, or features that aren’t as advanced, in some markets.

She added that the biggest shift in technology is the move from a client server model to a mobile cloud model.