Yesterday I went shopping for an electrical outlet expander. You know, turning a two slot outlet into six slots. The guy at the store started talking about his smart devices. Mostly his Alexa and how he could turn the lights off in his living room from his bedroom by asking Alexa to turn off the living room lights. I told him I wasn’t interested in making my home any smarter.
Months ago (maybe even last year) we had an issue with our television (which since, has been replaced). We called everybody, no one wanted to take responsibility. Finally we ended up with our ISP helping us. One of the first things the tech said we needed to do was clean out our cache from our router. Turns out we don’t have a single computer in the house that is directly connected to the router. (Not my choice, but it is just one of the problems when the house you buy isn’t new/under construction. Soft wire decisions.) So he cleared the cache.
As he explained it. Everything you do using your wi-fi gets stored in your router. So when you say your devices are listening to you, even without saying Alexa or Siri, do this… your house is listening. Or rather, it’s tracking.
Ever wonder why the commercials you see, on the same shows are different than someone else? (I’m talking the local/regional stuff, not the national/network stuff. Everything you search or watch is stored. Not just by your programming provider (Hulu, Netflix, Apple, Prime, etc.) but by your router. So it isn’t just Alexa, Bing, or Siri listening, it’s everything.
The smarter you make your house, the more info you give them. Information that’s used to tailor what else you see. So, it’s your call. Invite the whole world in? Or not? Their virtual foot is already in. Do you invite them in or keep them standing at the door?