26 SEPTEMBER 2023 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Sometimes “Smart Homes” aren’t so Smart by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC A New York Post article entitled “Locked out, hacked, told to go to bed: When smart homes turn on owners” gives us the dark side of smart homes. As I’ve stated many times before: Computers - when properly applied, programmed, and tested - can be a very useful money and time-saver, but they can also cause serious problems with flawed programming, inadequate testing before product release, or deliberate hacking. Sometimes the best approach is to not have a computer, for a wide variety of reasons. The article cites several examples of computers causing their owners much grief. A Microsoft engineer was cut off from his Amazon smart home devices for allegedly making a racist comment to a delivery driver via his eufy brand doorbell even though no one was home at the time. He was finally reinstated, but it took Amazon a week to do that. A fashion model suffered “tech abuse” when an ex-partner used her smart home devices to monitor her whereabouts. Knowing the access codes, this individual was also able to turn on loud music in the middle of the night in an attempt to harass her. Another fellow, after moving into his new home, had the smart home system tell him “good night” at 11:30 p.m. and immediately locked up everything. There are even reports of hackers “locking up” smart home devices and demanding a ransom for the ability to use your own electronic equipment. We now have water heaters and heating/air conditioning systems with the ability to communicate with and be controlled by an outside network. Aside from this technology making these products more expensive, more difficult to troubleshoot and repair, and more obnoxious, I’m not sure I want any of the devices I depend on having the ability to be controlled by anyone but myself. This may raise some legal questions as well. When something goes sideways with an automated system, who is liable? Is the system owner or the company who developed the system at fault? Or are both liable? There are a lot of reasons we don’t do certain things in life - even if those things offer some benefits. There are often extra costs involved some do not want to pay, the ability to track and record your movements which can be undesirable, and just the added complexity to your life. Life can be difficult at times and we don’t need some computer compounding our problems. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com
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