What is the obsession with Smart home solutions?

[flameport]

. Worst that can happen is that my heating is set to max and it costs me a few ££ before I notice and turn it off.

Not necessarily.

An insecure device can allow access to the network it is connected to - your home network. From there, other devices in your home are far more vulnerable as connections to them can be routed via the insecure device and therefore will not appear to originate outside the home.

A compromised device could be used to monitor traffic on the local network and capture information from other local devices, either using it for various purposes or sending it to some external address without your knowledge.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Or, if your home is heavily "smartened up", you could be held to ransom.

 

[Doggit]

People have been conditioned to get the next "must have" toys. They will explain their need to have them, and their acceptance of the risks, and then walk blindly into the unknown with a smile on their faces.

I am wary of what I don't need, and cautious of what the sales indutry tries to foist on me. I keep my computer camera blocked, and will not get an echo, nor a smart tv with voice control. I have a smartphone, but don't make any banking transactions on it. I do not use facebook, and have a minimal presence on the interenet, and if my wariness makes me a luddite, then so be it. I will not go quietly into the night, and I most definitely will rage against the dying of the light (my privacy).

 

[Iggifer]

In our wholesalers they sell an ES lightbulb with a built in bluetooth speaker, the outer metal thread is well exposed, so god forbid if it was put in a non polarised lampholder

they have had those on the shelf in our local, nationwide wholesaler for MONTHS. Last time I asked they'd barely managed to shift a couple. They look awful, and have terrible light and sound output. Not much going for them really

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Not much going for them really

You're completely missing the point!

They have Bluetooth!

You can pair your phone with them!

Honestly, some people....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I am wary of what I don't need, and cautious of what the sales indutry tries to foist on me. I keep my computer camera blocked, and will not get an echo, nor a smart tv with voice control. I have a smartphone, but don't make any banking transactions on it. I do not use facebook, and have a minimal presence on the interenet, and if my wariness makes me a luddite, then so be it.

Also, if you use Firefox, I can recommend the NoScript add-on.

I will not go quietly into the night, and I most definitely will rage against the dying of the light (my privacy).

I have in the past challenged companies over the data they want me to give them when I make an enquiry - e.g. (an example of data collection, not one I challenged) I wanted to ask a supermarket a product-related question, using their webform.

As I see it, to answer me, they need the question, and my email address to reply to. They do not need my postcode, they do not need my phone number, they do not need to identify a particular store. They may want them, but they don't need them, so I didn't provide them. The form went through with '0' for my phone number and 'n/a' in the other "mandatory" fields. If the verification for these fields is more sophisticated, and wants a real phone number, or postcode etc, I use the ones for the company's head office.

In challenges I usually ask the person reading to take off his company hat, and consider how he would feel, personally, if he wanted to go into a shop and look around, possibly pick things up to examine, maybe even ask an assistant a question, and the shop refused to do let him do that, possibly even refused to let him through the door, until he told them who he was, where he lived, and to agree to be followed around the store by someone taking notes of everything he looked at. I tell them I don't expect them to reply to me from that personal perspective, but I do ask that if they personally would feel unhappy with a shop doing that, to think that that is what the company they work for is doing on their website, and to pass my complaint on to the relevant people. A few times I have had a reply along the lines of "Hmmm - I see what you mean."

If I find I can't buy something without "creating an account", and it's a on-off situation, so not eBay, or Amazon, I use a "burner" email address - create one for the purchase, then when it's all over, and I have the item(s) I delete the email account.



And no - I do not own a single tinfoil hat.

 

[ericmark]

The problem is people will not admit it when they get it wrong, it does not have to be IT related, I asked my father what was his Morris Mariana like before buying one my self, he said great, so I bought one, after driving it for a while I said how in the wind it is hard to keep it in a straight line, yes he says mine is the same. Had he told me before I got one I would not have bought it.

So people buy things which don't do what they say on the can, but will not admit they got it wrong. I had myself seen so many people who had said how being able to control their heating from the phone saved them money I believed it, until I got one, when I found how slow it was to heat and cool I asked those who had said how good it was, there were a good few who had said how good it was, when questioned then admitted they had never really studied the bills, and in real terms they hadn't a clue what it was saving if anything. OK I did not get it to save money I got it to control heating better, which it failed to do, complete rubbish, I even wonder if the manufacturers ever tested the items in a home?

I got a web camera to save having to drive to mothers house to see if she was OK, the number of times when I came to look it said there was a problem try again latter was silly, whole reason to get device was to look when I was alerted there may be a problem, it did not say anything on the advert about half the time it would not work.

I was not really worried about some one hacking my system, no bank details or anything else they could really get. But I do want the things to do what they say on the can. But unless we admit to others they don't work, people will be conned again and again.

I have watched the TV adverts for Smart meters, are they saying the meter I have now does not record what I use accurately? That is what they seem to be saying, I am sure that is not true, but we have an advertising agency who should insist misleading adverts are not shown, or have we? And as far as being controlled from my phone, no it can't, it can be controlled from some special phones, but not mine.

 

[Adam_151]

If I find I can't buy something without "creating an account", and it's a on-off situation, so not eBay, or Amazon, I use a "burner" email address - create one for the purchase, then when it's all over, and I have the item(s) I delete the email account.

If you have your own domain, then you can set up a catch all email address, something like [email protected] and set up a mail box for it. You can then give out email addresses such as [email protected]. You can then see if other stuff from other companies comes through it, if you get too much rubbish then divert that particular email address to the bin at the server end. After a while you can divert the whole lot that starts a.whatever to the bin and start again with b.whatever

 

[motorbiking]

As you work in IT you'll know that the point of these apps is to provide you with basic convenient functions while sucking in as much high value data about you as they can. Having worked with some of the developers of the popular heating automation brands, I can say for sure, that they are the least skilled in the industry. None of them could get proper jobs with proper IT development firms.

 

[SimonH2]

I have watched the TV adverts for Smart meters ...

What a pile of deliberately misleading lies they are. I notice that they've changed them significantly, I can only assume that there have been complaints about the blatant lies and they've had to reign back the bull manure somewhat.

Back to the original topic ...
Don't buy a "smart" TV
Stick to real locks
Be careful about cameras
And, err be careful about your private life

No, no IoT crap in my house. There will be some, but it will be very select stuff, nothing that has to phone home to work (or not !), and it's not going to be everything on one network.
The problem is that most IoT stuff falls into two camps (or even both of them). Either security hasn't been considered (beyond perhaps a token box ticking), or it's primarily a data collection tool (why do you think Google paid so much for Nest ?).

 

[ericmark]

I got caught out with a pet cam as it was called, you can see what is going on using ones PC very handy, but impossible to set up using the PC, it needed a phone to set it all up, once set up the computer is fine. But I don't use a smart phone, my mobile works with voice and text and has a address book with phone numbers stored nothing else. Had to borrow a phone to set it up.

Had a problem with TV over internet, at home we have a blueray box which will pick up a host of internet programs, wanted something similar for mother, got this little device which it said would do the job and saw a demo in PC world. Got it home it wanted my credit card details before it would allow me to set it up. I took it back.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/05/id_theft_young_adults_increases/

 

[jamesmcbride]

I am one of the few who does actually see benefit in some "smart home" systems.

I also work in IT and have partly written my own home automation system (based on various open source projects).

The main things I get out of my home automation system:
Accurate control of heating when necessary
Control of lighting
Garden watering

The system is controllable from my phone (secured by certificates) and allows me to say that i'm "coming home".
There are temperature sensors around the house which monitor the temperature and call for heating when necessary. - Over a year I saw fairly significant savings over a timer and thermostat.
Outside lights come on when it gets dusk and go off at midnight unless I haven't got home.
Some interior lights come on if I'm not at home when it gets dusk and go off later in the evening.
The plants get watered if they need it (based on outside temperature, humidity and rainfall).

Overall I like the way my system works. I know there will be plenty of people telling me I don't need this and that it's a waste of time, but this is my opinion.

 

[Doggit]

No, you don't really need it - apart from the heating monitor, and the plant watering system, well I suppose the interior lights, but the real thing in your justification, is that you've built a tailored system, and not just picked up a piece of kit that's nothing more than a toy.

When you market it, it's something I might even look at - luddite that I am.

 

[SimonH2]

I think most people can see benefits in some of this stuff - and especially when it's something you've tailored to your specific needs. The main objection to a lot of the stuff out there is that it's expensive, insecure, spyware of really dubious functional value.