Home smart devices are ideal for spying on you
We now have dozens of smart devices in our houses and even on our bodies. They improve our lives in so many ways - from
lowering energy consumption in our homes to
egging us on to be active.
But these smart devices respond to whatever commands they are given: we've had security experts demonstrate how
cars can be hijacked remotely and medical devices in your body
can be hacked and
turned into lethal weapons. These risks are now well-recognized by technology developers, and there is a great deal of
excellent work going on toward how to avoid them.
But there are other dangers we should be more concerned about that are getting less attention.
Your gadgets could be providing a window that any hacker could see right through to spy on you
Your stuff is surveilling youYour laptop has a video camera built into it. When it's recording, a little green light blinks on so you're aware you're being recorded. But
it can be instructed to videotape your activities without the green camera light being on. And this is not just an in-laboratory warning of a hypothetical danger; it has actually been done, by over-eager school officials and by peeping Toms.At least you can turn off your laptop: when it is shut, the camera can see only "the other side" of the laptop. But this
quick fix doesn't apply to sound recording devices, like microphones. For example, your
phone could listen to conversations in the room even when it
appears to be off.
So could your TV, or other smart appliances in your home. Some gadgets -
such as Amazon's Echo - are explicitly designed to be voice activated and constantly at the ready to act on your spoken commands.
It's not just audio and video recording we need to be concerned about.
Your smart home monitor knows how many people are in your house and in which rooms at what times. Your
smart water meter knows every time a toilet is flushed in your home. Your alarm clock knows what time you woke up each day last month. Your refrigerator knows every time you filled a glass of cold water.
Your cellphone has a GPS built into it that can track your location, and hence record your movements. Yes, you can turn off location tracking, but does that mean the phone isn't keeping track of your location? And do you really know for sure your GPS is off simply because your phone's screen says it is?
At the very least, your service provider knows where you are based on the cellphone towers your phone is communicating with.We all love our smart gadgets. But beyond the convenience factor, the fact that our devices are networked means they can communicate in ways we don't want them to, in addition to all the ways that we do.
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