12 thoughts on ““Smart” Homes”

    1. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.

      or

      As of this moment, they’re on double secret probation!

      or

      Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

      ?

      The Animal House model of competent rules enforcement does seem to fit this situation eerily well.

        1. As has been pointed out, there are many suitable and appropriate quotes.

          But yeah, that’s the one I was thinking of

  2. It always amazes me that people will build their whole life around one of these platforms without either reading, understanding or believing the terms of service apply to them. Every one will have a paragraph or more that essentially says we have the right to terminate or change this agreement at any time for any reason or none at all. The user will have no recourse beyond possibly payment for services not rendered, if any.

    This applies to “professional” Youtuber’s, sellers on Amazon, eBay, etsy and so on. With all the smart home crap, there’s the added assurance that thousands of people will have access to the data and any recordings made by the system and that when it is inevitably discovered that this has been abused, you will have no recourse. Of course. you’ve already agreed to let them sell it to anyone willing to pay, so it’s sort of moot.

    When Amazon shut down Parler, it should have killed AWS dead. If they can do it to them, they can and will do it to anyone. And this was a straightforward purchase of services.

  3. Seems like a great business opportunity for smart home systems that don’t allow personal information to leave the premises, or be shut down by the vendor.

    1. Yes. It already exists. It’s slightly more expensive. It’s called Industrial Process Control hardware/software and allows for a greater range of things to be controlled. Just use ethernet connections and refuse WIFI or other wireless connections. Never connect your home automation to the Internet – for any reason.

  4. At some point if Tesla has its way we will all be driving autonomous electric vehicles; we will in effect cease to be “drivers” we will be passengers in our own cars. The chip/CPU in said car will be able to communicate with the “cloud” whether we like it or not. The state will know everywhere we go and when and likely any conversations in our vehicle (voice commands, etc.). No doubt the government under certain “emergency” situations would be able to activate a “kill switch” signal making our vehicles inoperable until said government issues the “all clear” signal. During a lock-down in such a scenario you would be in effect stranded at your house unless you want to walk/bicycle or something. A “smart home” with cellphone activated door “smart locks” would be even better; they could lock you in your home until the “emergency” is over.

  5. The articles are mostly overwrought: “Jackson was still able to use Siri and locally hosted services to control his smart home system in spite of the lockout.”

    Don’t get me wrong, I think cloud-controlled smart houses are stupid, and this isn’t the first reason why, but he was not “locked out of his house.”

    Amazon’s taking days to get around to watching the video he had that proved he didn’t do what the driver claimed is inexcusable, though, and I can’t help but wonder if the delivery driver got in trouble at all.

    1. If nothing else, his wearing headphones was impeding his ability to hear clearly. That could’ve been *dangerous* while driving — back when I took driver ed, we were warned to never wear headphones or anything else that could interfere with our ability to hear our surroundings while driving. So yes, he should’ve gotten a reprimand for that, because he could’ve misheard or failed to hear important things while actually behind the wheel.

      1. Bottom line, is nothing should have been done to his devices, at least until they had evidence something wrong was really done. IANAL, but it seems like he could so over this “ready,fire, aim” enforcement is ripe for a lawsuit.

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