Free Republic

You no longer control your home. Amazon does. “Hey kids, be careful. If Alexa hears you say the wrong thing, nothing in the house will work anymore.” They say that a fool and his cloud are easily parted. We talk a lot about deplatforming, but when a single corporation doesn’t just control a site you use, but controls most of your life, everything from your doorbell to your vacuum, your music and your lightbulbs, and it decides that your politics are bad, you’ve got problems. That’s exactly the situation that people put themselves in when they rely on Amazon or...

The outage at Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud-computing arm left thousands of people in the U.S. without working fridges, roombas and doorbells, highlighting just how reliant people have become on the company as the Internet of Things proliferates across homes. Multiple Ring users even said they weren’t able to get into their homes without access to the phone app, which was down. The outage prompted people to reflect on the pitfalls of having a “smart” home that’s overly dependent on not only the internet, but one company in particular -- while those with “dumb” homes gloated that their fridges and light switches...

Residents in Texas who have smart home thermostats were deeply disturbed during the state’s latest heat wave. Texans who have smart thermostats reported that their temperatures to their homes were raised without their knowledge. Reports revealed that electric companies in the state raised the temperatures of homes remotely to almost 78 degrees to conserve energy consumption. The actions by the companies were part of a sweepstakes that residents unknowingly signed up for which gave the electric companies the right to change their customers thermostats.

Yes, like all other devices around you, your Smart Home devices can be hacked too. You must be thinking how that is even possible. Well, hackers have their way of finding their way around something. And nothing better than a Smart Home device that can allow a hacker to enter your home and quietly collect all your helpful information. This sensitive information can include your personally identifiable information, bank details, account details, and more. Hackers can easily sneak into your Smart Home devices and find their way around the information which is most beneficial to them. So, instead of just...

By now, Monday’s massive Google outage is history for most people. While it was a minor inconvenience for some, with most Google services being down for hours on end, it was a much larger pain in the electronic ass for the tragically hip who have surrendered their “smart” homes to Google. In fact, of the services that went down, it was Google Home users who were literally left in the dark during the outage on Monday, RT notes. As a result, “smart home” users were complaining about not being able to perform once-simple tasks at their homes – like turning...

Energy recommendations from a government-backed program have gone viral after suggesting that people should keep their home thermostats at least at 78 degrees for cooling. Energy Star, which works with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department to set efficiency benchmarks for appliances, electronics, building materials, lighting and other products, recommends that Americans program their thermostats to at least 78 degrees from 6 a.m. The program then recommends temperatures be raised to at least 85 degrees from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at which point it recommends again setting temperatures to at least 78 degrees. Thermostats should be then...

Killing America With Kindness: Google provides a curated one-world curriculum preloaded onto its Chromebooks The Humanitarian Hoax is a deliberate and deceitful tactic of presenting a destructive policy as altruistic. The humanitarian huckster presents himself as a compassionate advocate when in fact he is the disguised enemy. Convenience is prioritized in 21st century life. Electronic devices that communicate with each other are marketed with the flattering descriptor “Smart” devices. Futuristic Smart Homes feature everything Smart from appliances, lighting, heating, air conditioning, TVs, computers, entertainment audio & video systems, security, and camera systems that can communicate with each other and be...