Reservations on Smart Home Technology

Based on research that I’ve done, I am not the only one who is reluctant and suspicious of this technology. With virtually every home electrical device, and in many cases not so-electrical device, becoming an IOT device Pandora’s Box will increasingly be opened for hackers, voyeurs, spammers and advertisers to badger and monitor our every move.

Oh boy, we will never need to look up from our phones with all the critical messages coming in from our home and everything we own, and don’t own. Based on research that I’ve done, I am not the only one who is reluctant and suspicious of this technology. With virtually every home electrical device, and in many cases not so-electrical device, becoming an IOT device Pandora’s Box will increasingly be opened for hackers, voyeurs, spammers and advertisers to badger and monitor our every move.

Case in point, in 2014 a new smart refrigerator model came to market with the ability to email its owner with status of the refrigerator and its contents. Someone hacked into the poorly secured device and used it to send out 750,000 spam emails, all coming from a refrigerator, and unbeknownst to the owners of the appliance. The refrigerator was actually just one device in a cast of 100,000 internet connected devices that were part of a spammer botnet.

There are also concerns of information overload and the higher costs associated with smart home technology devices, and most importantly, the questionable real value they bring to the table. For example, do we really need the ability for our refrigerator to take a picture of its contents, and send us pictures of it as well, to know what we need to restock? Can we really not take the time and effort to open the refrigerator door and look in at its contents to see what we need to pick up at the grocery store? For me, it is understandable why the smart home technology marketplace has been slow to take off. There are just too many privacy and security concerns still not properly addressed by our ubiquitous smart phones to make homeowners feel comfortable enough with embracing smart home appliances and products too.

There is no doubt personal privacy will be further eroded by welcoming these products into our homes. I can see it one day where the federal or state governments serve people arrest warrants based on information gleaned not from their smart phones, but instead from their smart kitchen appliances.