As I have said before, I did experiment with X10 stuff years ago in hopes of being lazier than I normally am. They didn’t work all THAT well – nowadays, it seems, they work a lot worse. Oh sure, FUNCTIONALLY they are far better and actually work (unless the company manufacturer shuts down and bricks your expensive automation equipment) as intended. However, as I kept telling my class “if the service is free, YOU are the product”, this will keep me from ever bothering to try ever again:
I’ve just asked Lowenthal what he, as an advertiser, would be able to do with data transmitted from an internet-connected appliance, and I happened to mention a toaster. He thought through the possibility of an appliance that can detect what it’s being asked to brown: “If I’m toasting rye bread, a bagel company might be interested in knowing that, because they can re-target that household with bagel advertising because they already know it’s a household that eats bread, toasts bread, is open to carbs. Maybe they would also be open to bagels. And then they can probably cross that with credit-card data and know that this is a household that hasn’t bought bagels in the last year. I mean, it’s going to be amazing, from a targeting perspective.”
The thought experiment I put to Lowenthal—the CEO of The Media Kitchen, an advertising consulting firm—wasn’t some far-off hypothetical. Over the past several years, the American home has seen a proliferation of “smart,” or internet-connected, devices and appliances. There are, of course, smart speakers (which roughly a quarter of American homes have) and smart thermostats, as well as smart thermometers, smart mattress covers, smart coffee makers, smart doorbells, and even, yes, smart toasters. After Amazon recently announced the release of a slew of products compatible with its Alexa voice assistant, including a smart microwave and a smart wall clock, an executive for the company said he could imagine “a future with thousands of devices like this.”
Yeah, I wanna be ratted out by my vacuum cleaner for neglect (you know, that device costing hundreds of dollars that just sits there in the corner all too often), or my fridge tattling on how long that sour cream has moldering in the back of the top shelf. Or the freezer yammering at me: “you know that roast you’ve forgotten about….for the last two years?”. Go Roomba yourself – oh wait – they’re ratting me out to security firms and house-cleaning services.
No, it’s really about too many people knowing far more about me than what I want them to. I’m not about to pay hundreds or thousands for some appliance from some company that’s gonna use me against me and make money from me for them – forever. You want that data? The LOWEST bar is that you offer me snitching hunk of plastic and metal for fee – and then we’ll haggle upward from there.
Don’t get me started about a smart toilet…..
(H/T: Instapundit)
