And what’s the worst an internet connected thermostat could do, discomfort you to death? If someone got into my Google account past 2fa etc id have bigger worries.
For me it’s more the privacy aspect. IOT devices tend to be network weak points. Things like Alexa constantly listening. I could see myself self hosting home assistant maybe in the future but not of the things smart devices enable are really a value add for me personally.
You don’t need home devices to lose your privacy like that. Your phone’s themselves are constantly listening in.
Was talking to the wife in the car one time about buying a new pair of tennis shoes, and when I got home that evening and watched YouTube videos and such, I was getting so many tennis shoe ads it was actually quite spooky.
Oh definitely, I go to a lot of effort to try and mitigate it (graphene OS, no Facebook, social media, pihole for network wide ad blocking, simplelogin for email aliasing, no smart devices) but there’s always plenty of invasive apps/services even you’re privacy conscious.
No they aren’t. Not in any sense that even explained in common sense language to normal people.
They are listening to what amounts to be a key pair(s) voice imprint. That’s done at a hardware level. And despite it be career making and be worth millions nobody has reported any large scale beach of trust in many years.
The major players have an excellent track record of being secure.
This is why I like boarderless security, and did even before all these smart devices came around. Every device should be responsible for its own security. It meant your laptop is still protected when you’re on some random wifi network. Networks shouldn’t be built like eggs; hard on the outside, soft on the inside.
It does take more technical skill to setup, though.
Or they could just dime out the heat/AC and give you a huge energy bill. Or kill the furnace in the winter, while you’re on vacation, and let your pipes burst.
Realistically speaking who targets an individual house in the hopes of accessing something important and usable when companies lose millions of customer financial and personal information basically every month?
I think that example is probably the most serious one. If you live in regions that go to -40c you most definitely don’t want your thermostat to just stop heating the house.
At the same time, it’s nice to be able to check what temperature it’s at while you’re away. I have a zwave thermostat myself, gives “smartness” without the reliance on someone else’s computer.
Sure it’s definitely an extreme example for the sake of argument but it’s one with potentially severe consequences (what if it happens while everyone is sleeping, or while all humans are away with only pets in the house, etc etc).
And what’s the worst an internet connected thermostat could do, discomfort you to death? If someone got into my Google account past 2fa etc id have bigger worries.
For me it’s more the privacy aspect. IOT devices tend to be network weak points. Things like Alexa constantly listening. I could see myself self hosting home assistant maybe in the future but not of the things smart devices enable are really a value add for me personally.
You don’t need home devices to lose your privacy like that. Your phone’s themselves are constantly listening in.
Was talking to the wife in the car one time about buying a new pair of tennis shoes, and when I got home that evening and watched YouTube videos and such, I was getting so many tennis shoe ads it was actually quite spooky.
Oh definitely, I go to a lot of effort to try and mitigate it (graphene OS, no Facebook, social media, pihole for network wide ad blocking, simplelogin for email aliasing, no smart devices) but there’s always plenty of invasive apps/services even you’re privacy conscious.
Jesus Christ “always listing”.
No they aren’t. Not in any sense that even explained in common sense language to normal people.
They are listening to what amounts to be a key pair(s) voice imprint. That’s done at a hardware level. And despite it be career making and be worth millions nobody has reported any large scale beach of trust in many years.
The major players have an excellent track record of being secure.
The issue is that the thermostat can be used as a jump box into your network.
That’s when/where all the nefarious things happen.
This is why I like boarderless security, and did even before all these smart devices came around. Every device should be responsible for its own security. It meant your laptop is still protected when you’re on some random wifi network. Networks shouldn’t be built like eggs; hard on the outside, soft on the inside.
It does take more technical skill to setup, though.
Or they could just dime out the heat/AC and give you a huge energy bill. Or kill the furnace in the winter, while you’re on vacation, and let your pipes burst.
Realistically speaking who targets an individual house in the hopes of accessing something important and usable when companies lose millions of customer financial and personal information basically every month?
I think that example is probably the most serious one. If you live in regions that go to -40c you most definitely don’t want your thermostat to just stop heating the house.
Whats -40c I only know freedom units. Im guessing its -20f
Coincidentally -40c is also -40f
Believe it or not, it’s also -40f :D for once we’re all happy.
At the same time, it’s nice to be able to check what temperature it’s at while you’re away. I have a zwave thermostat myself, gives “smartness” without the reliance on someone else’s computer.
Pretty extreme example, and im sure you would manually intervene at that point
Sure it’s definitely an extreme example for the sake of argument but it’s one with potentially severe consequences (what if it happens while everyone is sleeping, or while all humans are away with only pets in the house, etc etc).
It’s happened before too: https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2016/01/18/nest-smart-thermostat-glitch-leaves-cold-feet-and-steaming-mad-customers/