The Smart Home Freak Show Stops here!
 

One of my electric companies offered me a NEST thermostat for FREE. I turned them down. The connection goes through the NEST server (now owned by Google/Alphabet) which means they or a hacker could potentially change my settings.

The smart home freak show stops here | The Memo

Hive customers hot up in 32°C heatwave glitch | The Memo

As I pointed out to a buddy, the point of this automation I believe in the end is remote control. Power company is short of power, well, let's adjust everyone's thermostat by a couple of degrees. WHAT?!? Didn't you READ the EULA? So Sorry.

The power company can do this today, but only a bit more drastic. The remote provisioning aspect of "Smart Meters", which allows the power company to switch the meter on when you move in, also allows them to shed load in an emergency.

Welcome to the new world....

Google having more information about your personal preferences? What can possibly go wrong?

Imagine you Smart Car having access to your Internet searches.

Based on you browser searches, I suggest either the brothel on 5th or the clinic for a broadband antibiotic

When Target first applied analytics to their data a few years ago, they found out quickly that they were offending women by sending them coupons for baby formula......before they knew they pregnant.

And then the car forwards its location on to local vice unit...

No thanks, why would I want another gadget that just makes everyone lazy ? Convenience in some situations, comes at an unseen price.

How long has Google been collecting your information? Has anything bad ever happened to you as a result of them having some data on you?

Will you always be scared of the big bad Google having your information?

So what Google knows I like to sleep a little colder.

I'm for smart stuff as long as it's not too smart, and I ultimately still control it. I had a smart thermostat not the Nest. I didn't have my firewall opened up to allow it to talk to home base, and had an app on my PC that I used to control it. I've looked at and thought about the Nest several times, but the whole learing thing. Our schedule is too varied for that to work very well. Then there's the dogs. Then there's the fact that we might be home, but not near the thermostat for long periods of time where it could think that you'd left. No, I want to control it. Also, as you've said, having them phone home to allow control from a central location on the 'Net opens them up for hacking.

I absolutely don't want one of the "we'll give you a free thermostat, and we'll retain control of said thermostat".

I've read some stuff about the Smart TVs phoning home too.

I love reading what all the tin foil crazy people come up with :D

Smart meters can shed load?? Can you site a source for this? Turn your power off, sure, but only if you don't pay your bill.

Retain control of free thermostats? Again, any source to site here or just more talking out of your ass?

Wonder which causes more damage, data collection or people spouting false facts on the internet?

Someone just posted an article on smart TV's. Smart but not secure.

Can always throw a piece of scotch tape over the webcam!

Load shedding is normally done at the substation level. Now that a power company has access to your meter, it can turn your power off at will. It is an obvious capability.

Yeah, and if you don't like the heat turned down by your provider, well we'll just contaminate your water and kill you off.

There are numerous options.:mad:

Before the smart meter, did the company have a way to turn your power off?

It seems to me the capability hasn't changed. Someone can always pull your plug.

Turn your power off at will? Again, site ANY source that says anything remotely like that. That's like saying any police officer can shoot you at will. Is it technically possible? Sure, but its illegal. The electric companies are required by law to have just cause for turning off power. There are even rules about when they can turn off power, even if the bills have not been paid! Over 100 degrees outside? Can't turn the power off. Below freezing? No power shut off.

No load shedding, of any type, any where, has ever been done through smart metering...ever.

Turning off power at a sub-station is called rolling blackouts, and once an emergency has got to that point, your smart meter, smart thermostat, smart phone and everything else in your house won't matter one bit.

It hilarious when you make it sound like cutting power to a substation is a decision made by Joe Bob on a whim when he's grumpy on a Monday.:rolleyes:

Who pays for the extra cost of heating up the homes?



In general I am not worried about smart homes and the phoning home devices.
I would only be worried if they all where connected and streaming everything to one source and would not use theire own protocols and services.
I dont see that happen soon, too much competition and rivalery between the companies. If they would work together on the other hand ...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1456932292.jpg

Don

Rolling blackouts are ROTATIONAL load shedding, which the power is cycled around an area. That might happen later. But it starts with straight out dropping of power to customers. In the past, it was done at the substation level, because there was not control beyond that. Now the utility can control it down to the customer level.

Some larger electricity users elect to be the first to be shed by accepting a lower utility rate.

Against the law? If it is 100 degrees outside and the entire network is going to go down without load shedding, the utility will drop users to prevent a wider-spread blackout.

Load shedding is the correct Utility term. Ask any power network engineer.

First of all, you need to read. He said

There are even rules about when they can turn off power, even if the bills have not been paid! Over 100 degrees outside? Can't turn the power off. Below freezing? No power shut off.

He said it was illegal to shut it off for an unpaid bill under certain conditions, not the entire network going down.

Second of all, you have a problem with the utility preventing a wider-spread blackout because?????

I'm simply stating that the power utilities now have the access and granularity to control power down to individual customers. Load shedding can be done at that level.