The PROBLEM with Smart Home Tech 

My wife was blind and physically disabled and we had the entire home set up with smart devices. It really helped make her life normal she could control the entire home with her voice from the microwave, air fryer, washing machine, thermostat, lights, find out who's at the door and so much more. She loved to shop with Alexa and it's very important that these devices keep improving because the effect they have on disabled people and their families is night and day.

The truth is that these technologies SHOULD be exciting. The reason these progressions are so creepy is because of the companies behind them. And you know, people can tell me that my phone isn’t listening to me, but I have merely talked about things in front of it (things I’ve never looked up and it would have no reason to think I would be interested in), only for it to pop up something in my Google feed or RU-vid suggested a day later.

It's really important to remember that sometimes "convenience", aka "nice but optional", should really be replaced by "accessibility" aka "life-changing". Smart lighting, outlets, and HVAC alone have freed up critical energy for me to do things like feed myself and get myself more water, because when you're disabled, every trip across the room counts. The smart vacuum, which actually makes me more nervous, keeps the air cleaner to keep my disabled lungs safe and frees up a ton of energy. In the absence of the communal living we've been robbed of that might rely on human labor to assist the disabled, I think we should put energy into protecting the privacy and well-being of people whose lives are so improved by these devices, rather than condemning them. In my experience and reading, there's nothing my current smart devices can collect that my phone isn't already doing. To mitigate my risk, I keep my tech in the same company's ecosystem to limit the number of parties with my data, and never use devices that can't be controlled in an analog way. I'm not letting smart devices control my front door lock (though I am looking for more accessible keys, because my hands do not like keys), so no company can ever keep me out of my house or let someone else in.

I have ADHD and struggle with time management. The thing that made me go through all the effort of swapping all my lights over to smart lights (controlled by my google home), was when someone in an ADHD group said they set their lights to dim 1 hour before bedtime to remind them to start their evening routine. Absolute game changer

If you want to automate your house, but dont trust big companies (as you shouldn't) you can make an Alexa replacement yourself with open source software and a Raspberry pi. Its a little involved but there are plenty of guides and options for your experience or needs. And its a new hobby if you need another one of those.

Whoever decided to put the Emperor’s New Groove scene in, I appreciate you.

I’m glad you brought up the potential abuse of this technology that can happen in abusive relationships because an old roommate of mine used our simplisafe system to listen to conversations his gf was having while he was out of town. 😬

The whole doing mundane things to ground yourself really speaks to me, personally. I don't own a smart watch, nor am I going to because I feel the temptation would be there to mess around with my smart devices in work or if I go out on a walk. Disconnecting yourself when you're doing other things serves a really nice mental break from the life we lead today. Great video!

I will tell you as a current technician at Apple and having had worked with software engineering - Siri does not listen to you nor collect much information. It’s why it’s the worse of all of the AI systems.

Don't forget that smart homes add accessibility for disabled people. Imagine being able to turn off the lights with your voice when previously you relied on someone's help. These things can be the difference between independence and dependence for some people

One thing you can do, and this is what so do, is run a server in your own. I have a raspberry pi and it’s through that I can retain the functionality I want while revoking the data. Things like pi hole, home assistant, writing your own code to do something, here are even voice assistants you can run and be in control of your own data.

I don’t think we are just thinking that our smart phones listen to us. My partner and I have tested it on multiple occasions where we say we are looking to buy something and seconds later, ads for said thing appear on our social media. And it can’t be based on anything else because we’ve literally said items we would never have actually looked up because we don’t really want them at all. The contrary.

My father’s cousin’s college age daughter is named Alexa, being in a house with an Amazon smart device gets very confusing for her and it.

As an avid smart home nerd I use two different platforms: Apple’s HomeKit and Home Assistant. HomeKit claims to be run locally and not use the cloud (although there are products that do still talk with a cloud, just no apple cloud). Home assistant is great because they bring together products that dont normally work and is much easier to get local products that dont use a cloud. Still in the process of migrating away from cloud options but some of the products that I love are nanoleaf, eve, Philips hue all come to mind. With Matter (new smart home standard) released we should see much more locally controlled devices roll out.

Smart home tech is too sketchy and scary for my taste in terms of privacy. You’re right, literally every sci fi movie ever warned us of this level of automation and scary monitoring. Even an episode of mickey mouse back then has his whole smart home turn on him, and that was a kids show.

I understand the advantages of having smart tech to a degree. I've always been hesitant and don't want to depend on technology to do certain things for me. Even my phone listens/knows where I am even after disabling as many settings as I can to not have certain information given back to companies. It's ridiculous! The movie WALL-E is a great example of where our future is heading.

one of my goals as a mechanical engineering student is to get one of my comp sci buddies to work with me if i have a house in a decade to homebrew some of this stuff. being able to yell at the roof to make coffee in the morning sounds great, but only if it's a closed loop with just me and my wife accessing the data.

When I lived with my cousin, all the lights in the house were connected to a Google home device, and honestly that was the best thing for me. The bulbs we used had options for different colors and adjustable brightness, and I fully took advantage of those features. I'm pretty sensitive to light, so I always kept the lights in my room on the lowest setting when they were on, which was plenty of light to see, but not enough to be overwhelming, so I was always comfortable. I also disdain artificial warm lighting, so I loved having the flexibility to change the hue to a color I found pleasant. My roommate also had his air conditioner set up to the Google home device so he could turn it off when he went to work and use Google home to turn it back on about half an hour before he got home so his room would always be comfortable for him while he was there but wouldn't drain power when he was away. The only annoying part about having all the lights controlled through the internet was that any time the power went out, when it came back on, all of the lights in the house would turn on because you have to leave the switch on for the device to control it, and until the internet connection is restored, you just have to deal with being blinded. It's a very strange feeling when the lights suddenly turn ON in the middle of the night and that's how you find out the power went out.

You guys are really amazing at picking topics. Ever since I've subbed there hasn't been a video that hasn't caught my interest

The thing is that all these tools are designed to replace people's jobs, but does allow people to experience how a rich person in the past would live. So there are pros and cons to having smart home. Roomba - Cleaner Alexa - DJ + Receptionist Nest - Butler Ring - Security guard + concierge Coffee maker - Barista Hue - Butler For my room though I only use hue lights for dimmer mood lighting and do everything else manually, but there's always the temptation to get more. But I do like my smart watch for tracking steps/reps (personal trainer) and getting notifications (receptionist) without using my phone and also finding my phone (dog).

There was a great article I read once about the technological diet or something like that. Where at some point we're getting so drowned in technology, we're starting to crave something analog, something palpable. The CDs and vinyls are making a comeback for example, and it seems that part of it is owed to having a "special" music section of yours, rather than streaming through millions of songs. Furthermore, look on the market for RPis :D Everybody was so excited to build something, the smart mirror was a hit years back, but after a while people realized that a mirror is a mirror. There's only so much excitement you can get from turning your lights on from your phone/RPi. I know I lost my excitement, because I went through the same thing, and now my RPi is waiting to find a new owner. And if we're talking about the data... that's a horror movie on its own. PS: There are also so many possibilities for it to actually make life easier for some people. Look at the system that Stephen Hawking was using. And so many other people with disabilities. Or older people even. There are two sides on this knife, we just need a balance.

This kind of tech really fuels over consumption and people who have disabilities who'd benefit most from this kind of tech are priced out of it.

I work in IT... and have for over 20 years. I keep my home very simple, and my appliances very basic. Simple is usually more reliable.

We, non native english speakers, are blessed to not be using personal assistants :D Our language is a bit too complicated (yet) for a digital assistant.

I have a smart speaker, fryer and lights. I think it is important to note how many times these devices (except the fryer) have saved me from oversleeping, disconnected from my personal devices and motivated me for the day. When I am temporarily paralysed in my bed but my lights automatically come on it's like a "you can do this moment for me", or when I'm trying to fall asleep after hours of unproductivity and all I have to say is a hey google it's all worth it. The speaker has played old music, podcasts, and sometimes even a fan noise in efforts to get me to sleep. I love it because i don't have to control it on my phone which is another distraction. Setting those impromptu 30-minute timers for naps as well has been really helpful. For me, I don't want to go back to life without it. Save the sad violins but, i (most likely, going through testing) have adhd and things like productivity, remembering tasks and consistency has always been a struggle for me. So once i move into my own place, you can expect a fully automated house to help me stay as productive as possible. Side note: The fryer was a recent buy and so far haven't used its smart capabilities too much. I love it still but I think I will really love it when I go back to working fulltime in the summer and food prep time will become more scarce.

Still can’t unsee the plant growing out the toilet roll on the table behind you Levi 😂😂, but yeah, as a tech person still only see the major benefits from virtual PAs for accessibility reasons, can’t imagine how helpful they can be for someone that needs help with vision or mobility. Otherwise it’s just easier to do whatever manually.

Thank you for this. Often I feel like I'm alone in my very strong resistance to these home "assistants" - all my friends have them and from what I've experienced often they're so laughably bad at actually following commands that I have 0 FOMO. But more so, the network security risks and flat out surveillance risks they pose (for the very little they actually can do right now) are just not worth it for me. I'm already leaking enough data left and right by using a smart phone. Lack of solid regulation of companies that collect all that data just makes everything even worse. Companies, especially big ones, never have our best interests at heart, if our interests happen to coincide with theirs that's just happenstance. It is *not* tin-foil-hat-conspiracy-think to be concerned about this.

There are some local options, but they require a bit of technical knowledge to fully use or leverage. Doing so though, they can be way more powerful than the options for general consumer which also tend to be less private. One of my favorite automations I've done with Hubitat and Hue is to have my lights slowly fade from bright and cool to dim and warm throughout the evening, and back up to bright and cool throughout the morning. This helps with maintaining a healthier circadian rhythm. But I think an easier cheaper alternative could be produced with bulbs that simply warm as they're dimmed and dimmers that automatically dim depending on time of day. Ironically, even with this advanced smart lighting setup, I use the light switch most of the time. I have a button by my bed to turn everything off. And I'll occasionally use Google Home on my phone. (I do not have a standalone Google Home or any voice assistant) But usually I just use the light switch.

I will admit that if I could, I would get technology to do basically everything around my house.

I have rejected "assistants" and "smart devices" since their inception when I was in high school, I don't even have them enabled in my phone, I can do everything perfectly fine and would rather buy "dumb" appliances that last for many more years and aren't prone obsolescence or hacking, etc.

My siri was triggered and called emergency services due to this video. Thanks

Alexa, get me a girlfriend. -Can't. Alexa, do my dishes. -Can't. Alexa, do my taxes. - Sorry, I can only play Despacito, tell you a wrong weather forecast and put toilet paper on your Amazon shopping list while secretly recording everything in your home. ... Alexa - Yes? Play Despacito.

I'd be very curious though how smart technology could assist disabled folks with tasks that are geared towards ablebodied folks

every time when I was speaking about some issues Google send adds . I stopped to talk about private things and if so I switch phone off and leave it in other room- it definitely helped.

I have noticed that even without any kind of search, people that talk about things I don't generally know anything about or do, RU-vid puts stuff on my Playlist like THE SAME DAY.

I rather carry a torch through my house and live with no electricity until I let google in.

I just started reading About Time, and it begins with the controversial introduction of the Sundial - initially a wonder, but quickly became a tool (and symbol) of controlling people, and removing their agency. Just imagine a world with no punch clocks?

We are going heavily down the smart home automation path. But trying to be selective and use caution, it is weighting up the risk/reward factors. Our lights can be manually overridden with the switches, the heatpump is automated by an add on that can be unplugged, the door has a manual physical key override. We have security cameras/floodlights outside and don't plan to have them inside (except we need to figure out a baby monitor but we are considering one that doesn't connect to the internet) The catdoor only opens for our cats microchip which is a godsend as there are so many cats around here, but they can't come in through the door, but it cant stop anything going out the door unless we physically stopper it so if it faulted he wouldnt get stuck inside, only outside which would be ok. Our ventilation system is not smart and works only from the control panel. Next week are looking into smart blinds / curtain tracks, so we can get them to close up in Winter when it gets to dark before we get home to retain heat.

BRO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE VIDEO YOU TRIGGERED A RANDOM SMART DEVICE IN MY HOUSE THAT I DIDNT KNOW WE HAD. I STILL DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT IT WAS???

Love your vids so much, started with Dyson and now I'm hooked

The part about wanting a self adjusting bed that reads and lulls be back to sleep might become something I want say when I’m 102 yrs old …😆 Yes it is a careful balance of some practical convenience but I still want to enable myself to do many tactile tasks in my home for myself.

I have a fully integrated Home energy solution, battery, EV charger and water heater solar diverter. It is unbeatable in its functionally, and I couldn't be happier. What worries me is what happens if the company that runs this system is the subject of a hostile takeover, and the new company stops supporting the product. I end up with an expensive paperweight.

The fact I can safe my back and time doing vacuum and mopping is a thumbs up for me. And a simple security cameras.

I was making dinner for a friend at a place she was housesitting; there was a home assistant on one of the counters, and we started talking about how much we distrusted it, musing about whether it was listening when not in active use. It piped up to say that oh yes, it was listening, but it would never ever do anything untoward with the data... We jumped and looked at each other. Neither of us are getting one of those things anytime soon.

I kind of missed the point here of locally run smarthome systems. In addition to major brands such as Google and Amazon, there are several alternatives to running a smart home system locally without an internet connection and only allowing the owner access to the data. Sure, Google and Amazon are big players in the market, but Homeassistant as a local open source platform is gaining huge popularity.

I like my Google Nest. I use it as an alarm clock that I can talk to and it can play music for me and dim my smart lightbulbs. That’s about all I use it for. Sometimes I watch streaming on it if my phone is charging. It can also turn my robot vacuum and window AC unit on. But I use my phone or their remotes for that. Sometimes it’s just easier to get up and do it myself, because settings can get lost or there are network connectivity issues. And that’s annoying. So as long as it can play music and wake me up in the morning, I’m happy. Otherwise it’s a nonessential. My phone can do all of these things too.

i googled for phone cases and now my facebook and instagram is full of ads for them. I still can't find one that fit my phone, that isn't a scam or ugly.

I feel much better about hating tech that talks back. Ive disabled all my smart features. Even at work! My phone is a smart phone, but like not intrusively smart. I also love escaping to rural places, and i dont mean small town America. I mean rural mountain villages with few indoor toilets and next to no internet connection

There are open source voice assistants, that which you can choose if you want to, or just can't, submit voice samples. The Texas power company made a deal with customers to lower their bill if they could spread load remotely.

Just to summarise what you are saying, there are two sets of potentially interconnected problems here. The first is that you can potentially lose control of some basic function of your house such as heating, lights or doorlocks with potentially serious if not fatal results. The second is that nobody trusts those companies and yet we don't know what they are doing with data that should not leave the device and are, instead, transmitted outside. At this point the scenario of a hacker or an assassin meddling with our home devices to hurt or kill someone is not science fiction anymore. Much as I love the idea of a house that self-maintains, the idea of being unable to override the devices scares me.

Even back in the 90s our baby monitor would pick up phone conversations, random transmissions & somehow even conversations being held inside what we were able to determine was one of the houses behind us; it would be absurd to think the reverse was not also true, with strangers listening to us inadvertently or not.My now grown children grew up with tech, understand it, love it & own & use many of these devices while laughing at their "dinosaur" mother who won't allow most of them into the house & goes around covering the lenses & turning off the location finder on things I do own. I won't even own a robotic vacuum & will at times leave my phone at home, although that causes its own problems.

The Internet of Things has me particularly worried. I trust Apple to make sure my $1000 phone is secure. But do you trust Hamilton Beach to worry about software security on a $20 smart toaster? And the risk isn’t just turning the toaster on, it’s access to your home network and everything on it.

The larger problem imo is that most people don't have any clue about how the technology behind all this works, and that prevents them from making informed decisions about how to use or control it.

Right on... use technology, but don't become a slave to it. There is still great pleasure to be had in doing simple things simply. Thanks again and regards,

I feel like you're listening in now too. I was JUST telling my coworker about this as a joke and now all I get are recommended products that sort of are like what I happened to be saying

Thats why I use home assistant, eveything is local. and The most important devices still have physical control

The thing is, many security issues of many devices could be fixed by just not connecting them to the internet. I can see the use and appeal of many smart devices, but connecting them to the internet is a big mistake imho. Of course, it might be necessary depending on what you want it to do, but a thermostat for example doesn't need to be connected to the internet at all, same for voice assistants (like alexa, although it is important to mention that that just works for controlling other smart devices. If you want to use it for looking up things, or shopping, or whatever, then it obviously has to be connected to the internet. But it doesn't if you just want to control your lights and blinds and whatever through voice commands). IP cameras don't need to be connected the internet directly either. While I can see the reasons for doing it, it is the cause of many of the security concerns of smart devices. Also not everything has to be smart. It's not difficult to just use a toothbrush like normal people do.

great video, loved it!

Was talking to my dad one night about a random topic (i forgot) and google home literally interrupted our convo and started to beat box randomly without us even asking or giving it a promt. It was funny but also scary lol

Love the what we do in the shadows little bit 🤣

I largely got into automated google lights, for my mother, to make it easer for her to turn the lights off and on, especially so she didn't trip over anything after turning the lights off. although she never used it that way, prefering instead to turn lights on, after getting up and going to the location in the house she wanted to be. these days, I find it partially convenient to turn on my bathroom lights, before I struggle out of bed.

Can confirm I’m dependent. In 2019 I lived, temporarily, in the middle of nowhere with cruddy internet. It sucked.

Smart Home Tech devices can have their own disadvantages. As stated, they may be spying on you in a more discreet manner. We can never be too certain that we’re often safe at home. Things could go wrong and it may even be difficult to seek a reliable solution to that specific problem or issue. Thanks for this video, Future Proof. Continue to work hard the best you can. We will all be here to support.

Also, it's damn crazy what kind of information we can now extrapolate from stuff from simple sensors like audio, wifi etc. Basically device doesn't even need updates to gather more data, they can just gather more data from information they are already getting. Not to mention we have AI's crawling all over connecting and interpreting whatever data is available. Privacy is has been severe lagging behind progress of technology up till now, but it will get worse since ability gather data will increase and what they can do with data will increase.

I got the nanoleafs this winter, it is really nice to get help to get t (wean it works properly aka contacted to the right Internet Frequency ) the lights on wean it's dark until 08:30 in the morning, though it's really crappy how they get so much information about us too

Appreciate the informative insight into the data collection aspect (THE LARGEST) of smart home technology Another neat and intriguing innovation that is wholly corrupted by corporate interest (which are in stark opposition to our interests as consumers) Ty futureproof team, n yaaaay Canada! Lol

I didn't realise I had a 'hey google good morning' routine, now I do after it was set off 😂

I watched your video on my PS5; it's amusing to me enjoy not being surrounded by tech. when folding laundry; I fold laundry as an excuse to catch up on streaming shows.

The only time I use my "Ok Google", is when I'm driving. I think it's the safest way to put some music, calling someone, etc.

It's useful when you're old and living by yourself. My dad's friend fell down and couldn't get back up. Stayed on the same spot for 3 days before someone came in and checked on him. He was drinking his own piss to stay alive. If he has Alexa/Siri/etc he could have just said "hi Alexa, call Mark" and get rescued in 30min or so. That's the only legitimate reason I would install smart home systems imo

Ok, I get the fear for this but at the moment YOU have to set up all the things that you described. You have to set up what 'OK Google, Good morning' does. This is why I don't have Ring or any automated security system, that terrifies me. This is also why amazon echo devices or fire TV devices are so cheap, they're all being subsidized by the advertising you're getting served. The actual cost of the device is subsidized by you and serving you ads. If you want to avoid this you'll need to look at things like the Nvidia Shield or other more expensive devices.

As a disabled person, having something which helps me with my ADL's is a good thing. I also think that the tech is good for seniors who wish to age in place without having to move into an assisted living facility.

My partner keeps adding connected devices all around the house and it drives me crazy. Sometimes it can be convenient and I completely understand how useful it can be for people with disabilities, but I like my privacy and my autonomy, and don’t really need them in the background. Also, is it true that hackers can use smart devices to spread viruses (and we can’t even add anti viruses to those devices)? We have Google in many parts of the house, smart lights (also switches for the fans), smart blinds, smart thermostats, robot vacuum, robot lawnmower, smart washing machine, etc. Yes we can set up routines to automate things but I personally like doing things such as opening the blinds myself as I also check the weather and look at the landscape before work. Smart switches don’t work compared to traditional ones when you can’t use the fingertip and try to use other parts of your fingers or other body parts, instead you have to do it many times til it works (e.g. your carrying a sleepy baby and also carry things in your hands, and you can’t talk to Google without waking up your little one). Sometimes, Google also starts music and videos on the wrong devices in different rooms, does the opposite of what you want (e.g. switching on the lights when the kids are falling asleep instead of turning off), it start all the fans when you want one specific light to turn on, young children can turn on the tv and watch what they want without your consent, they can also switch on and off the tv and lights non stop to trigger you, your baby playing with the smart switches can create a latency and then you won’t be able to turn it on again without recalibrating the whole thing, thermostat need recalibrating and batteries constantly have to be changed/monitored around the house, smart blind need to be plugged in as solar panels keep peeling off from windows, adding yet more cables, some lights resist and you have to turn them off a few times to make them work. Google does listen and adds comments and replies without us saying the trigger words - so creepy. It also tells us jokes and asks us for feedback to improve its sense of humour 😂 it starts playlists without being prompted too. Some things we speak about and don’t type on a device start appearing on ads. It doesn’t work well with some accents (e.g. multilingual family). Changing your Wi-Fi password becomes such a hassle. So yes, it’s nice to turn off the lights from our bed, open the blinds with the sunrise, set up alarms with our voice, save energy by setting up routines for the thermostats, answering the door when you’re out, but it can make us lazy, more addicted to screens and technology for things that don’t take up so much time, and you can actually add up stress having to maintain all of them, keeping them charged, fixing them when they behave erratically. It also pushes people to consume more and has more of an ecological footprint: yes you can save energy, but you have to upgrade your devices as technology evolves when a traditional light switch or thermostat would have lasted a lifetime, so it uses precious natural resources that are limited on Earth (especially at a large scale), creates pollution at the production stage and when we get rid of them. Is it really worth it? (Not speaking about people with disabilities of course as I think that it can make such a difference for them)

Most people don't understand that they aren't always listening there's 2 states the key word state where it's listening for the keyword locally then when it's actually sending which is everything after the keyword so in short it only actually listens after the keyword

Really, this just makes me feel better about buying appliances from the 40s and 50s. This just makes my distrust of these companies worse, and I can't finish this one....

I was skeptical of smart tech but when I got into cyber security and realized that the state of privacy is worse than people think, I invested heavily into all the smart devices because if they're going to steal my data at least make my life easier. Super glad I made the jump because I save SO much time being able to control every device from my phone and voice lol.

I just find personalized ads weird and funny at same time. Best example was me working in firm that makes billboards, 3D logos and ads for everything, and so one time we got to do a car dealership/mechanic shop that also sells things for cars, including tires: just a design of 3D tire for roof with name of the dealership, few smaller billboards and logos for tire brands on window panes. Didnt tell anyone on phone or message yet, nor net, the bill for paying the job wasnt yet made or even printed, absolutely nothing was mentioned by me. Next thing i get personalizied ads for tire brands that are meant to be put on windows and car fluids and antifreeze on billboards. And i dont even own a car, which makes it hilarious since i dont even need any of it, but get ads anyway

Hey levi I think you are an excellent speaker. I am trying to work on my public speaking and have mostly done transcripts of what to say. I have been encouraged to use more of an outline style. Do you use a script or a rough oitline?

I often use my phone to turn on my TV, since I cast off of it and I'll need to use it anyway, but that's about as far as I want to go. I can turn on my own lights.

Those devices creep me out, they can get hacked so easily, it's horrifying! As long as I'm able-bodied, nothing of that garbage will enter my house.

I really wanted you to mention that google had a network down situation about a year ago and people couldnt for example turn off their lights, etc. It's not only hacks that are worth mentioning, issues with your smart setup can also come from within. But regardless, I work in tech and I still use smart devices everyday. I am fully aware that my data are not only my data anymore but that is the price we pay for living in the present. I find having smart devices around that I really get much use out off is smart in terms of saving time/energy and then using that saved time/energy for spending time with my family, hobbies, etc. We all have to realise that smart homes are basicaly no better then having a smart phone. Your data is getting collected eitherway - I may as well get some good use out of it. Let me know your perspective on this take.

We can become overly dependent on our devices. For example, smart phones contain all the phone numbers we call, but what do you do if you lose the phone or it dies? Practically nobody remembers all those phone numbers. I live in a rural area where power failures are common. How easily can people manually operate all the devices that their smart home controls? How can easily can you cope if the internet is down for a prolonged period?

Offline server smart home. That’s perfect, and that’s why those companies hate it.

The Circle and The Every by Dave Eggers are the most important dystopian novels to read of this generation. Life changing and terrifying with how smart technology is already so ingrained in our society and community

Wow. This put me off getting any of these even more. Yes I do have an iPad and a smartphone, but I don’t have any of the Siri type things switched on on them.

The conversation about tech and software really needs more FOSS into it. Free Software literally has the answer to get both the convenience and also the privacy, security and avoid the planned obsolescence...

Your frustration level is at next level...

I love my smart home tech but I would never connect my fridge, washer, dryer or oven to the internet because the risks greatly outweightly convenience, after all the washer still can't load itself and if a hacker gets a hold of it it could easily cause a fire or really bad water damage. I think if the risk for fire flood or potential bodily harm exists by connecting it to the internet Then there should be no ability to remotely control the device.

I don’t know why you have a tattoo that says ‘gezellig’, but I like it. Had to look twice because I was so surprised 😆 Greetings from a Dutchie!

Me: frantically pauses the video before devices start dialing 911

"Heating homes account for half of energy global emissions" ...dam that seems quite high. We don't even use the heater in our house.... granted, I live in SoCal and the natural gas heater we have in our old home broke a long time ago and never bothered to get it fixed

I’m so glad I’m not the only one who enjoys washing dishes and doing chores 😅

I'm simply putting it this way. Old school is sometimes better than new school

I still struggle with ai thermostats. I turned down my at night turn it up when I get up, and turn down if leaving for whole day. I do have a friend with MS, she uses a smart home to lock & unlock & turn on & off lights. But most people don’t need it. I get out & meet neighbours & I even know my postman’s name talk with

Slightly related...I drove through the Villages on my way home from an out of town event yesterday. Almost immediately a video about buying a home in a 55+ community came up on my RU-vid suggestions. I'm 12 years away from 55+, so I certainly haven't ever searched the topic. That weirded me out a bit.

Well… This is exactly why I have "limited" myself to local network and Apple HomeKit only. Basically impossible to hack plus I have only lights and smart plugs. And I don’t use any voice assistant. For security we have 2 dogs. No need for cameras…

There’s communities out there that look for live cameras unprotected and even if protected with passcodes they can see archives and watch the recorded history

These things are so creepy. I've been in the home of someone I really suspect was recording conversations in his home without telling his visitors.

I’m curious how do you guys upload videos that you record in your apartment when you’re on a road trip ?

The problem: Everything