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The IoT cloud is...

2016-04-04 17:48:32.748488+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

RT Pinboard ‏@Pinboard:

I confess that the best part of the Internet of Things is watching horrible things happen to early adopters

Google's parent company is deliberately disabling some of its customers' old smart-home devices.

Arlo Gilbert, CEO of medical app company Televero, is infuriated by Nest's decision. He has written a Medium post about the impending closure, labelling it a "pretty blatant 'f--k you' to every person who trusted in them and bought their hardware."

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-04 20:24:10.094917+00 by: Jack William Bell [edit history]

[Speaking as someone working on iOT products, albeit for the automotive sector.]

If there is one thing wrong with just about every iOT product line out there it is the fact they try to monetize it past the purchase price by making the device a peripheral to a cloud service.

This is a deliberate choice. They want to capture user data and monetize that. Sure, they make lots of noise about being able to improve the product by doing big data analysis; and they provide remote access to your device this way, via phone apps or web or whatever. But, in the end, it's about making money by selling your data. (Or looking like a better acquisition target because they have your data.)

This has been true for some time now and everyone is getting into the act. We are talking about a core strategy of Apple and ABC/Google, but 'finding the cloud component' is something just about every startup is doing as well. Meanwhile the security and privacy implications are being ignored...

I'm fooling around at home with iOT devices built from commercially available switched power strips and Raspberry Pi's, along with some sensors and the like. I don't have enough spare time to productize the idea, much less write up instructions for others. But this is where we need to be going with this: THE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE RUNNING YOUR HOME MUST LIVE ENTIRELY IN YOUR HOME. And data that leaves your house should do so for a reason and by your informed choice.

And this is why I am not buying commercial iOT devices. Not even 'smart light bulbs'. Not until someone pops up with the philosophy that, once I buy the gadget, I own it and everything it senses.

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-04 21:57:27.658743+00 by: Mars Saxman

Yep. Right there with you, though I suppose I'm skeptical enough about the value of home automation that simply not having anything to do with it is not much of a moral stance. But I am categorically unwilling to install any home appliances which depend on a cloud service. Why would I do that to myself? Makes no sense.

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-05 10:17:25.491839+00 by: DaveP

On a mailing list I'm on, someone was asking about various home automation technologies. I replied that I'm a dinosaur and use X-10 because the only way to control it (if you can call what you do with X-10 "control") is to be on the power circuits within my house. I don't even have X-10 RF connected, it's all hard-wired.

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-05 17:18:11.119158+00 by: markd

I did some work with a fairly large appliance company that was doing a phone-home-so-we- can-alert-you-to-change-your-water-filter. On the first day I discovered that passwords were stored (and sent) in the clear, and all data updates (such as the 8 fields for the user's name and address) were non-atomic, I decided to stay far, far away from such things.

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-13 07:33:46.902973+00 by: Madhuri [edit history]

Article deleted because of irrelevant spam

#Comment Re: The IoT cloud is... made: 2016-04-14 14:02:19.679222+00 by: Gai H

I agree

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