The Safety and Security Issues of “Smart Homes”

 

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Smart Homes

 

The new emerging trend of smart homes has made our life easy, and relaxed, but it also has some safety and security issues, which you will find in this article.

We are living in an age where even our homes and appliances can be controlled by Applications and Wi-Fi. These homes are called “smart homes”. Now a person can do many of the daily tasks while sitting in the sofa or even miles away.

You can control the thermostat for your kids or pets if you are not home, you can lower the flame to the pot on the stove, you can watch over your home through webcams if the kids are safe, or if everything is going well in the house. You can even check the door lock if you have left the house in a rush and forgot if the door is properly locked. These apps and devices can even tell you if your refrigerator has milk and eggs or you need to buy them before time. There are many other tasks as well that can be performed by using smartphones and different apps.

The smart homes have no doubt made our life easier and somewhat relaxed. But have you ever think if these smart homes are safe enough to fully trust and depend on them?

Everybody gets excited by the idea that they won’t have to go to the kitchen or room for performing small tasks, and their kids will be safe if the are not around. But very few are aware of the fact that these simple tasks are performed thorough different applications which seek permission to access some of your privacy. You home is all the time connected to a Wi-Fi or internet where there sit some burglars or hackers that need a chance to harm you. People are busy being “smart” but they actually are being fooled. This article will discuss how we are being fooled by the “smart home” technology, and how the apparently safe smart homes can be so vulnerable.

1.       We allow these smart home devices and apps to access some of our very personal information. But we actually forget that we are all the time connected to outside world, where anyone can easily know when we are in the house, and when we are on holidays. So we actually are providing access to any evil minded person and let him know our routine.

2.       Many a times the Wi-Fi or webcams are hacked by the hackers. Many kidnapping, blackmailing, theft, and other worst cases has been reported that were done through hacking these devices. The smart door lock is not safe at all. How can it be safe when you yourself enter the pin codes, or passwords in an app, and control it through internet.

3.       The hackers can not only peek into your personal lives, but you privacy can easily be leaked as well. There are TVs with a tiny camera that is useful to watch over your kids activities, or what the maid is doing, but it also can leak a clip of you, and your family. The “smart dolls” are good to record what other people talk to your daughters, but it can also be used to leak some of your private talks and messages.

4.       The smart homes are not only costly, but they are all the time dependent on the internet. If the internet does not work, or is hacked, then your home is no more in your hand. The dependency on devices and applications has made people kind of lazy as well. Because they do not bother to walk to the kitchen to check the refrigerator, or stove. They have also become somewhat careless because they know they can lock the door, or turn of the air condition or adjust heat thermostat later on. The parents also want to protect their kids through the webcams, recorders, and sensors.

5.       Your location can also be traced any time when your smartphone is connected to your home devices and Wi-Fi, this way your ill-wishers can easily trace you. As the smart homes are costly, and can only be afforded by the upper class, so they already have many potential enemies, who take advantage of the technology to harm you.

Smart homes have no doubted made our life easier in many ways. We can stay connected to our homes even if we are sitting in another country, and control all the devices we want to. But we can not ignore the other side, where many people have faced difficulties, and are put into an unexpected situation only because of the new emerging trend of smart homes.

 

Author’s Biography:

The author of this article is Morgan, who has Master degree in English Literature, and he has been serving the academic Cheap Essay Writer | HireEssayWriter.com industry for 5 years.

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