New technology continues to provide ways to make human’s lives easier. SmartHomes are especially a trending technology that were seeing more and more of, with about a third of all American households having Smart technology. These SmartHomes connect to your devices, and allow residents to control aspects of their house so that things may turn on at set times or be controlled when they’re not home . From a coffee machine to a thermometer, home owners can turn any device in their home into a Smart device, as long it connects to the internet.
SmartHomes pose many great benefits to homeowners. They could provide safety features, such as alerting your device when someone is trying to break into your house. If your not home and need to let somebody in to feed the pet, you could remotely unlock your front door or garage. A Smart thermostat could end up saving you tremendous money on energy bills. There are countless positives to incorporating Smart technology into homes, but there are some who question its reliability.
Some homes are so flooded with Internet of Things technology that a poor internet connection could lead to short-term chaos. Having that many devices running on the same wireless internet could also lead to some products working a lot more slowly or not at all. Along with reliability, another issue with Smart home technology is the fear of limited privacy. Many are concerned that the companies producing the devices in homes that use command-based technology are constantly listening and collecting consumer data unwillingly. People also fear that their homes could be easily hacked, with devices always running in the household. In fact, about 70% of consumers retain this fear. These are fair concerns for homeowners who may find themselves to be more reliable and protective of their house than a device.
Smart home technology is a continuing trend, with almost half of American households expected to be SmartHomes by the year 2022. The technology provides homeowners with numerous advantages and conveniences, potentially improving our daily lives tremendously. These benefits seem to outweigh the big fears homeowners have with these devices, such as their home being hacked, their private life being constantly monitored, or their data being used without consent. Would you convert your home into a SmartHome?
This isn’t just a trend- it’s an entire industry. Even though Nest is known most famously for its Nest Thermostat, they have a varied suite of products to make your home smarter in many ways. Furthermore, Google Home is Nest-compatible, allowing for theoretical hands-free voice control of your entire smart home. I would hope that having Nest products on your home’s protected intranet would not be the biggest security risk, but privileging 3rd-party services may well be an exploitable loophole that makes hacking smart homes easier. Although I haven’t heard of a smart home being hacked yet, it should be noted that the television show Mr. Robot showcased a vision of what a smart-home hacking could look like. Having your own home turn against you seems like a terrifying occurrence, and personally I would not be comfortable making my home smarter before first reinforcing its security.
Sources:
https://nest.com/
https://workswith.nest.com/
The automation of tasks that smart homes provide make living a lot easier but like stated above, sometimes these things have negative consequences. Take the Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices. They provide a variety of benefits that can make certain tasks super easy, but there is a big question of privacy surrounding them. When used, the two devices collect and store everything you say. They even record data when you are not using the device but are in earshot of it. Going along with hacking these devices, someone could potential hack into one of these devices and listen to conversations that you might be having. If you are afraid of this, both devices have a physical mute button on them
Personally, I really enjoy using these devices on a day today basis. Does the idea that they record everything I say weird me out? Most certainly. With the recent misuses of data including the Facebook scandal, it worries me what companies could do with this information. When used correctly it could enhance my experience and I am all for that. Hopefully in the future there will be added security measure to help prevent the hacking of such smart home devices.
Source: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/alexa-and-google-record-your-voice/