The Internet of Things (IoT) has been in and out of the news for years. It is supposed to be some new heralding in of the smart house with millions of smart devices everywhere. It is going to revolutionize how we live and how we work from the ground up supposedly. The discussion which is often skirted or avoided in general is: “How will it impact privacy?”
What Exactly Is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things is a clever marketing term to describe random internet connectivity and features baked into any number of traditional devices or things which one would never expect to need internet connectivity. As prices plummet for silicon devices, the availability of cheap, low power, easily connectable devices has skyrocketed. Why just have a washer which beeps, when you can have a washer which sends you a notification on your phone so you can know when your laundry is done from anywhere?
Increases in bandwidth and convenience of wireless technology as well as mobile internet has made the Internet of Things an even easier sell. Why not pull up the app and see what you need in the fridge when you’re out and about instead of just making a list? Certain things are arguably way more convenient this way, but there has gotten to be a glut of connectivity as well.
What Are Some Issues With the Internet of Things?
As we touched on before, there has gotten to be a glut of connectivity. There are devices which should never be connected which are getting connected. The use case is dreamed up as a marketing problem rather than a practical problem and leads to features that add to planned obsolescence and buzzword bingo. What real use case is there for a washer that alerts you when it is done outside of edge cases?
A lot of these smart devices are prone to catastrophic failure once the smart board dies in them. A smart TV which should otherwise work may be entirely gimped because the ARM board which shows you ads when it’s connected to the internet has gone and blown a capacitor. These devices are internet connected, but may never receive an actual security update as well, only more ads and features you never asked for.
Every system, no matter how well designed is going to have flaws. You are adding multiple systems to your home network when you add your next smart device. Do you think the developers thought about patching that one in a million security hole with their last few bits on the ROM or about the feature to alert you when your kid ate the last Tide POD and that you need to go buy more with their affiliate code? Each smart device is a miniature computer which has multiple hooks into your home network unless you have segregated it on the network appropriately. Most people haven’t, and some who would, can’t with their ISP given routers.
What About Privacy With the Internet of Things?
Ultimately, most of the EULAs included with these devices enable them to mine data as they want. If you connect a “smart” device to your network, watch the traffic. You will see all sorts of data to all sorts of servers. People buying nice Samsung TVs are getting ads and similar on menus when they make the mistake of connecting them to the internet. You aren’t buying a device, you’re leasing it on the maker’s terms, and the terms aren’t very good.
Even if hypothetically the manufacturer is benevolent, the app maker or the OS maker or any number of groups which affect the device may not be. One bad click and your device may as well be a telescreen from 1984. That bad click may very well be the purchase order. A single bug in the wrong spot and a bad actor may make this device someone else’s.
What Can I Do About It?
Aside from not buy the device in the first place, typically very little without a good fundamental in network security, equipment which can handle it, and luck. Even people well versed in these things will waste time reverse engineering the device to either (bad) blacklist the bad parts or (better) whitelist only the acceptable traffic. This takes time, effort, work on your network, and some devices will just stop functioning correctly if you disrupt their ads. Very few devices offer the option to not have ads if the device embeds ads.
Even though it seems counter intuitive, buying a dumb device which is the core device and smart piece to layer on top tends to work best. A dumb washer and a smart plug means that when your smart plug fries it’s computer, the washer (probably) will still be usable. A dumb screen and a smart box means that when media shifts, you can move to the latest and the greatest without throwing away your nice TV. Buy the computerized part as a separate piece and the actual hardware as another and you save money in the long run.
What About the Devices Themselves?
Ultimately, most smart technology is limited by the computer built in. Even a developer acting in good faith, and working to patch security holes is going to reach a point the board can’t keep up with what needs to be done to keep the device efficient and secure without either require external help via the aforementioned network tweaks or at the expense of functionality. Any computer will have limits, but analog devices work in the way they were built without much tweaking.
The other thing to keep in mind is maintenance. A dumb washer is cheaper and the parts are a few dollars each shipped to your house to everything but the things which should take years to wear down. Most smart washers have the boards blow first from what I have been told by multiple repair workers, and the board will be 2/3rds the cost or more of a new device. Why not just buy a cheaper, saner analog washer and put a smart plug or similar on it so you can see the draw of power to know when it’s done and save yourself the hassle of connecting it to your home network?
Since the makers also know the boards will blow, the parts tend to be harder to replace and less reliable. A washmat quality washer can be had for $300 from the right place and last years with minimal upkeep, but an equivalent smart washer will be more than double that at best, and if the board ever fries, you have a nice, bulky paperweight. You also run the risk of the manufacturer cutting off whatever service makes the device function leaving you with an environment killing paperweight.
What Does This All Do To My Privacy?
Ultimately, each smart device is an erosion to control of your privacy. Each device is a little Orwellian telescreen in your house either by choice or potentially by exploit. You have very little control over what data is collected, how it’s used, and what updates might either leave the device non-functional or full of ads and watching you. A mic for your voice recognition may be weaponized into a mic to know when you’re home or to know when you’re pregnant before your family does.
This article isn’t just fear-mongering, this is something to fear until more power is given back to consumers. Consumers get the short end of the stick with pseudo-contracts effectively signed the second you buy some Internet of Thing device. Avoid signing them by not buying or limiting their impact by only getting the smart pieces you need. Privacy is a luxury not a guarantee at this moment in time.
Image courtesy of: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay