{"id":5493,"date":"2023-01-25T03:04:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T21:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/?p=5493"},"modified":"2023-01-25T03:04:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T21:34:45","slug":"fewer-than-50-of-smart-appliances-are-connected-to-the-internet-by-users-and-that-percentage-is-too-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/2023\/01\/fewer-than-50-of-smart-appliances-are-connected-to-the-internet-by-users-and-that-percentage-is-too-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer than 50% of smart appliances are connected to the internet by users and that percentage is too high"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Smart Appliances or Smart Devices are a pain. Yes, sometimes they make your life easier by allowing you to control your lighting from the bed or switch on your devices remotely but they cause major security problems. There is a term for these &#8216;smart&#8217; devices: &#8220;Internet of Shit&#8221;. This refers to all the devices that are connected to the internet that have no business being connected to it. One example is an <a href=\"https:\/\/article.murata.com\/en-sg\/article\/using-iot-for-toilets\">IoT enabled toilet<\/a>, Smart Toaster, Smart Mirror etc etc.<\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of potential issues in IoT devices including but not limited to: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If the manufacturer decides to shut down the service the device becomes an expensive paperweight\n<ul>\n<li>Older model Lexus cars lost all remote capabilities because the 3G towers it depended on shut down<\/li>\n<li>Older Sonos speakers lost functionality when the company decided to decommission them<\/li>\n<li>Tesla car bricked itself because it lost connectivity after owner parked it in a basement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Need a 24&#215;7 active connection\n<ul>\n<li>People got locked out of their house because a server upgrade was happening<\/li>\n<li>During an AWS outage folks were unable to change the temperature using their NEST systems<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Security Issues: IoT devices are the amongst the most insecure devices out there<\/li>\n<li>Lack of Interoperability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and much more. When I bought my AC a couple of years ago I had to argue for a good 15 mins to get a non-smart\/internet connected AC. The salesperson couldn&#8217;t digest why I wasn&#8217;t interested in having a smart AC. A few years later I got a washing machine and there was no option to get a dumb machine, but thankfully it has the option to create a local hotspot that I can connect to from my phone to control the machine. Yeah, it would be more convenient to do it from a distance but guess what I am already next to the machine when I am putting clothes for a wash and it is not that hard to connect to the local AP, start the cycle and then switch back. <\/p>\n<p>A lot of appliance manufacturers bet big on the Smart revolution and according to <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2023\/01\/half-of-smart-appliances-remain-disconnected-from-internet-makers-lament\/\">recent studies<\/a> are quite surprised to find out that fewer than 50% of their consumers actually connect their smart devices to the internet. The main reason behind it, in my opinion is that there is no major value add for a toaster or a fridge or a toilet to be connected to the internet. <\/p>\n<p>This whole conversation reminded me of the following quote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Tech enthusiasts: My entire house is smart. Tech workers: The only piece of technology in my house is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don&#8217;t recognize.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I am not as bad but nothing at my house is connected to the internet if it doesn&#8217;t need to be and then also it is on a separate network isolated from my home machine. <\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href='https:\/\/tech.slashdot.org\/story\/23\/01\/24\/1858214\/appliance-makers-sad-that-50-of-customers-wont-connect-smart-appliances'>Slashdot: Appliance Makers Sad That 50% of Customers Won&#8217;t Connect Smart Appliances <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Suramya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smart Appliances or Smart Devices are a pain. Yes, sometimes they make your life easier by allowing you to control your lighting from the bed or switch on your devices remotely but they cause major security problems. There is a term for these &#8216;smart&#8217; devices: &#8220;Internet of Shit&#8221;. This refers to all the devices that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-thoughts","category-techie-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5499,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions\/5499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suramya.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}