IoT - another way to make me feel even MORE out of touch…
Recently bought some lighting for a basement remodel. While shopping and educating ourselves on the current offerings, were shown some bulbs/fixtures that could be operated from my phone. I really have never had any difficulty using a wall switch…
This is already happening. Interactive toys that are connected to the Internet so a toy can “respond” to a child really are listening.
People concerned about privacy are trying to get these pulled from the market, but the idea is popular with people who don’t think so much about privacy.
The truth is, it’s all about data, and how people can make money marketing advertising to you based on data that you may or may not have willingly surrendered. It’s also about how much insecurity people are willing to accept in the name of convenience.
I’ve had the discussion with a number of people about personal activity monitors (PAM) such as FitBit and similar fitness trackers, and why I have no desire to wear one. Aside from the essentially uselessness of current devices (the obsession with ‘getting steps’ rather than assessing fitness in a functional manner), they can be used to track all sorts of personal habits and behaviors with essentially no assurance to users personally identifiable information (PII) will be secure. And frankly, even if PII security could be assured, it is possible to statistically identify a person through patterns of movements, and potentially use that information to assess other factors such as health. Such information could be extremely valuable to, say, insurance companies or health advertisers. And the next generation of PAMs will do far more than monitor steps and heartbeat; potentially being able to track eating habits via secretion monitoring, heart arrhythmia, stress states, et cetera, as well as Enhanced GPS-enabled and WiFi/meshwork tracking, and potentially even auditory monitoring. Even if you don’t wear these devices, they will be ubiquitous enough that you won’t be able to ‘protect’ your data without living in a cabin in remote Idaho.
But then again, most people currently carry a device in their pocket that can perform most of these functions automatically, and I don’t see smartphones disappearing anytime soon. In the near future the entire notion of privacy from both a legal and practical standpoint is going to be radically redefined. The IoT just adds another dimension to the ability to monitor the environment and track people remotely.
Stranger
Now that you mention it, I think I do. “Alexa, preheat my shower to 107 and notify when ready”.
Alexa, set Dr. Strangelove’s shower to 40 degrees and to rapid pelting mode. Also, lock the bathroom door, overflow the toliet, and instruct the Roomba to push the floorlamp outside over and break the bulb.
[darth vader]“All too easy.”[/darth vader]
Stranger
With the right product in a (possibly) exploding IoT market, it can mean becoming a largish electronics manufacturing company very quickly…
If you have kids, you can have all those things today! Well, except maybe the rapid pelting mode.
I believe FitBit originally shared physical activity, including sexual activity, by default. I don’t have one either. No thanks.
I turn off location on my smartphone unless I need it for my purposes. Not that this protects me. BART knows where I am when I use my Clipper Card and Fast Trak knows where I am when I cross a bridge.
Mack Reynolds in his Analog stories from the early '60s frequently had his hero not use credit cards to avoid being tracked. Spot on, I’d say. One of the better sf predictions.
Not just toys. I wrote a column for a special issue on IoT security where I came up with the scenario that you can have digital picture frames that could load pictures or do slide shows through voice commands, and how this meant that the walls literally had ears. I meant this as a joke but the editor, who is an expert in this area, said it was quite plausible. This was about five years ago, and it seems I was right.
Anything that can take voice commands can also be bugging the room, especially since the voice decode will be done in the Cloud, not in the device.
As far as I know predated by Heinlein of course. Maybe some others also.
Interview is in 90 minutes. Thanks for the help everyone.
Good luck!
Best of luck to you.
Stranger
Me: Alexa, please tell me how What Exit did on his interview.
Alexa: The correct wording is, ‘Which exit’. Let me look. Hmmm, it is difficult to know which exit you want. Can you please enable your location so I can find that information for you?
Me: Okey-dokie … I’m in [del]redacted[/del].
Alexa: Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! This is too easy. Start the countdown to the official Day We Take Over.
The interview went well. The IT Manager would like me to start ASAP, so I guess it is up the HR director now.
ETA: Of course IIoT & IoT didn’t come up at all. But pays to be prepared.
Congrats!
I hope everything goes well from here. And you can now lord your new knowledge over your future coworkers. I mean, share it with them.
Stranger
I was at a cybersecurity conference recently and one of the speakers was a penetration tester - he told a story about a design agency that had a fancy WiFi appliance (can’t remember if it was a kettle or a microwave) that all of the staff could control from their mobile phones - and it was attached to the office WiFi
All he had to do was sit in the car park outside the kitchen and broadcast a WiFi network with the same name as the one in the office, but at a higher signal strength and with no encryption - the appliance connected to it automatically and he was able to web into the appliance’s admin interface (which had no password) and get the Wifi passphrase for the real office network (which was stored in plain text in the appliance). Then he could connect directly to the company’s network and see file shares, etc.
Awesome, What Exit?.