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Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu, over at Gizmodo, write about wiring Kashmir's apartment with as many "smart" gadgets as possible and then observing the data flow. Some of the telemetry streams are not encrypted, some are. Both are observable by the companies they report to, but even those that are encrypted still tell the network in between a lot about the inhabitants of the house and their activities based on when they happen and their volume.
In December, I converted my one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco into a "smart home." I connected as many of my appliances and belongings as I could to the internet: an Amazon Echo, my lights, my coffee maker, my baby monitor, my kid's toys, my vacuum, my TV, my toothbrush, a photo frame, a sex toy, and even my bed.
[...] What our experiment told us is that all the connected devices constantly phone home to their manufacturers. You won't be aware these conversations are happening unless you're technically savvy and monitoring your router like we did. And even if you are, because the conversations are usually encrypted, you won't be able to see what your belongings are saying. When you buy a smart device, it doesn't just belong to you; you share custody with the company that made it.
That's not just a privacy concern. It also means that those companies can change the product you bought after you buy it. So your smart speaker can suddenly become the hub of a social network, and your fancy smart scale can have one of its key features taken away in a firmware update.
Usability was another aspect. She had no less than 14 different "apps" on her smartphone as well as several voice activated devices that still had comprehension difficulties.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Hyperturtle on Sunday February 11 2018, @05:26PM (2 children)
Fyngyrz has it right -- motivated people can do a lot with hardware that can be configured without the need of someone else's computer to make it run. That's how the PC industry used to work.. 'personal computer' as opposed to more modernized 'portable dumb terminals', I guess.
I went through a great deal of hoops to get the refrigerator and dishwasher I have to connect to my devices. They came with that functionality and wasn't part of my purchase decision; it's hard to avoid in a similar manner that if you want the higher end entertainment system in a car, you might not be able to get it without other bundled options.
My home aquarium system is not as high tech as his, but I had done similar things. I also made a number of hydroponic systems, after studying pictures of what was out there commericially and then seeing what didn't kill plants when I experimented. Most of that was controlled via "x10" hardware; the device controlling it was (and still is, on the occasion I need to change something) a windows 98 laptop with a serial port that connects to a "modem" that plugs into my electrical system and speaks to other devices plugged into outlets.
They mostly get commands only if they are more complicated than their 4KB of memory allows for; typically macros that do this then do that and try again a few times if no acknowledgement is received due to the laundry/washing machine adding noise to the circuit and causing transmission delays.
Back to the refrigerator and dishwasher; they have rj45 ports on them that are really USB connections. Those connections go to what is essentially a USB ethernet wifi connector. They then, if that is what you did, require a 24x7 connection to the vendor. The wiring is non-standard; you need their product because even if you got a usb to ethernet bridge that you wired properly based on experimentation, the device has code that runs that does the talking for the appliance.
To truly embrace the future, my refrigerator requires an account created and log in for:
the appliance vendor
something called 'if this then that' (dumber than turtle graphics programming that totally cant be run locally without logging into them because cloud--what if you moved your refrigerator how could it work??)
An active internet connection; such as the one you already pay for
To use it, you cannot actually connect to it with a computer. No, it requires a smart phone. Thus it requires:
An active cell phone service plan with data
an iPhone or Android phone -- nothing else is supported
registration on the apple, or google company stores, to download the application
The appliances did not come with anything that lets you actually use the connection. You must go out and agree to 5 different terms of services, pay two different ISP bills (at the time I checked, you could download the app over wifi but it wouldn't talk without the data plan for cellular service--and there is no desktop equivalent), and agree to share data between them all and their valued partners which may change over time. Each company said to contact the privacy policies of their vendor list because they cannot keep track of that for you, and none of them would alert the user if the policy changed; check back frequently for any changes.)
Instead, I bought the developer kit; it was cheaper than the wifi adapter I mentioned. Then I hooked that up to a laptop. Then I installed linux on a USB stick, and downloaded the tools necessary to talk to and query the appliances. There are example configurations/scripts out there that let you play what sounds like ansi music, flash the lights, bypass various safety thresholds for fun, etc... and also look at diagnostic info that even the most agreeable user is not allowed to see, even if they accept all the terms and conditions. A lot of the data is not visible to the actual consumer and relates to performance, use habits, etc. Use a lot of ice and they will send ads for their seperate ice makers, etc.
The utility of how I access the hardware is something that I introduced; it is not available to people that enroll in the consumer marketed system; the only things you get from that are reminders to buy things, fear based marketing, and interruptions to tell you that something that was going to happen anyway is partway complete. Buying the developer kit comes with no wizards, guis or instructions. You need to install linux on whatever the adapter will connect to, and find and install the development tools yourself. It was rewarding to do, and bypassed all of that other crap.
Everything works without fear of changes, I can read the info when the internet is down, if the wifi is down, and without concern that some remote firmware update is going to require me to sign up for something else, all the while not having to agree to 5 other companies (and their valued partners) learn more about how I use it, to better market to me.
I mean google and apple and microsoft don't need to know I have this. The developer kit lets you do everything and not even require a login except for the linux OS itself that you control anyway; it doesn't need an internet connection beyond your getting the tools. I shouldnt have to log into some 3rd party site that tracks you by real name and ties your behavior to everything for marketing purposes... just to get the application to access the appliance... etc.. blah blah. I guess I miss the days when the stuff you need to use what you bought actually came in the box and didn't require proof of my identity to some third party company and require agreeing to a contract unrelated to the hardware itself, just to get something I'll ignore because it sucks anyway.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @02:07AM (1 child)
Searching the Ubuntu packages I find this:
bottlerocket - Utility to control X10 Firecracker devices for home automation
Back around 2000, I was at a company that controlled a whole bunch of X10 devices off of a telnet-to-serial converter box.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Tuesday February 13 2018, @12:22AM
Yes, x10.com was handing out those firecracker devices for free with purchases for a while. I bought my stuff prior to that offer -- but it all still works. I might have gotten one for a light bulb or something but I had bought so much stuff during a sale I ended up with more than I could feasibly use once I figured out how to make things work.
There was a y2k bug... it worked on jan 1st 2000 but not Jan 2nd, so when I went out of town after making sure it all still worked on Jan 1st after a party... well I came back a week later and everything was dead, dying, or dessicated. Or all of that. Man was I upset. They released a y2k patch for the "activehome" software and life was good after that.
There are some fancy x10 software packages out there that let you do some pretty amazing things with the right hardware and sequence of events; it also requires some ingenuity and creativity to sort of plan it out. That if this then that thing I mentioned is sort of like the x10 macros--except x10 doesn't require you to give up your privacy in exchange for a little convenience.
My x10 stuff still works 18 years after a y2k issue (so does that windows 98 laptop...) I don't think most of the requirements my refrigerator demanded from me to get online will even be around in 18 years. (the refrigerator itself replaced one that came with the home; it was at least 20 years old... so that problem may be very relevant. There is no promise that the services you expect to be there will even be working 5, 10 or 20 years from now. Look at the sonos and nest hardware that are seeing premature end of life simply because its too expensive to keep lights on, and a revenue loss if there is no forced upgrade.)