Farhad Manjoo, New York Times:
More than 40 years ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft with a vision for putting a personal computer on every desk.
No one really believed them, so few tried to stop them. Then before anyone realized it, the deed was done: Just about everyone had a Windows machine, and governments were left scrambling to figure out how to put Microsoft’s monopoly back in the bottle.
This sort of thing happens again and again in the tech industry.
And:
The industry’s new goal? Not a computer on every desk nor a connection between every person, but something grander: a computer inside everything, connecting everyone.
And:
At a press event last month, an Amazon engineer showed how easily a maker of household fans could create a “smart” fan using Amazon’s chip, known as the Alexa Connect Kit. The kit, which Amazon is testing with some manufacturers, would simply be plugged into the fan’s control unit during assembly. The manufacturer also has to write a few lines of code — in the example of the fan, the Amazon engineer needed just a half-page of code.
And that’s it. The fan’s digital bits (including security and cloud storage) are all handled by Amazon. If you buy it from Amazon, the fan will automatically connect with your home network and start obeying commands issued to your Alexa. Just plug it in.
All of this is happening without any sort of oversight. Over time, we’ll have built a dystopiaNet that rides along the regular internet, unregulated, free of any sort of protections, while we whistle happily away.
Good read.
As you mentioned in the post on Facebook Portal, Dave, I don’t worry about being served ads…I worry that a surveillance apparatus is being put in place. I don’t have to mistrust Google or Amazon or Apple to be alarmed at the infrastructure being built out.
I’m concerned that we’ll come to a time where it is very difficult to get unconnected merchandise. Cars are all connected, televisions are all connected…that gives companies or bad actors the ability to know where I work, where I live, what I watch…
(I have a simple rule for whether I want a piece of data about me out on the internet: would I want my ex-wife to know? The answer to that is almost always “no.”)
In smart TVs (and, I would imagine, other devices) I’m advised to “just turn wifi off” and the device is no longer connected. I always think:
(1) How do I really know it’s off? Because the interface tells me it is? How many devices have we heard about that were listening and recording (!) when we weren’t aware? I do not trust manufacturers that make money off of a thing to give me the power to turn off that thing. What I want is a television that doesn’t have a camera, that doesn’t have a microphone, and that doesn’t have a wifi chip at all.
(2) What happens when the device gets to a point where an internet connection is required for it to work at all?
My TV is eight years old. It’s not giant, but it’s just fine…one day, however, it will die, and I’ll likely want another one. Will I be able to get a dumb one? I’m fearing not.
“All of this is happening without any sort of oversight. Over time, we’ll
have built a dystopiaNet that rides along the regular internet,
unregulated, free of any sort of protections, while we whistle happily
away.”
We desperately need regulation to prevent people being able to control their fans with home automation systems!!!
(I mean, I sort of get what you’re saying.
On the other hand, this is overwrought AF, too.
Will Amazon spy on me through my fan? Will it magically bypass firewalls? What if I don’t use Alexa for my home automation solution?)
Into your tent I will creep.
Presumably one can prevent all these issues simply by not connecting the device to one’s WiFi network. It can’t connect itself unless you give it the password.