Smart Devices: Convenient Cyborgs or Secret Spies?

Smart Device

An electronic device that connects to other devices or the internet through a wireless protocol such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi that can to a degree operate autonomously.

The smart device that you might be most familiar with is a smart speaker. Smart speakers are wireless devices that allows you to ask verbal questions and give voice prompted commands.

But smart devices do a lot more than answer questions.

A smart thermostat learns your habits and programs itself to be energy efficient.

Smart plugs allow you to program when plugged in items (such as lamps) are turned on and off, and to automatically turn off (or on) at the same time every day.

Smart lightbulbs allow you to control the light in a room, from dimming the brightness to changing the color.

Smart doorbells provide cameras to allow you to see who is outside, and can provide an extra level of security, since exchanges are recorded and can be shared.

Smart sweepers and mops roam around your home and clean up debris on their own, learning the layout of your furniture and running on their own.

You can even get a smart BBQ grill that allows you to monitor the temperature of your foods.

So in the future is here, with robots that can do all our dirty work for us! HUZZAH!

However.

These devices come with risks that your $20 toaster doesn’t have, and that’s the ability for an outside source to see what is happening inside your home. And laws have not kept up with the privacy concerns the devices cause.

Do the police have the right to the camera footage shot from your street facing doorbell? What about your security cameras inside your house? If video footage is saved on a company’s servers rather than on your computer, who really owns those recordings?

Just as important is the question of whether you trust these companies to keep your information secure. Are you 100% certain that the voice recordings and camera footage saved by your device cannot be hacked? If you are not 100% certain, are you ok with private arguments or clips of you walking around in your underwear being heard or seen by someone else?

Smart devices have the possibility to make our lives significantly easier. But they also come with far greater risks than most people consider. So before getting a smart device, you should research the privacy policies and security histories of the companies running those devices and weigh the costs of that specific information become public with the convenience of a smart device.