Smart Home and Security – Where is Privacy?

With the arrival of smart homes and security technology, the threat of security breaches and privacy violations by external forces has been a hot topic recently. According to VPNRanks, many countries globally, including the world’s superpowers, are conducting ubiquitous surveillance of their citizens. 

So the issue here is, “Can we get some privacy in our homes as well?”.

A home is a place where people can express their true selves. They can unleash their true feelings and thoughts without anyone stopping or judging them. Accordingly to “Article 8 of Human Rights Acts”, a home is where we can expect our privacy to be respected. 

With the growth of smart home technology, there’s also an increase in security and privacy concerns. 

What are these concerns, and how do install smart homes and security solutions make our home more vulnerable to security threats and breaches? We will try to find the reasons and possibly a few answers to these questions in this blog.

Smart Hardware, Software, And Their Privacy Concern

The amount of data which is generated by the internet of things (IoT) is enormous. Accordingly to a federal trade commission report, about 10,000 households can generate 150 million discrete data points every day.

The connected smart home devices generate vast amounts of sensitive data, but they also leave it vulnerable to unauthorized use by hackers or any other private or government agency. A small thing like embedding sensors can generate a serious amount of data, which a hacker can inappropriately use. 

The security concerns regarding the connected devices such as smart locks, switches, and assistance have been extended to include physical access to the property itself. Not only might these devices allow unauthorized access to the property, but unauthorized parties controlling the household device or service remotely is also now possible. 

Smart Home Inhabitants And Data Capturing

Companies like Amazon and Google are capturing data and gathering everything they can because no one knows what this data can hold in terms of value in the future.

An “always attentive” device such as smart assistance can capture data of unfiltered and potentially intrusive nature when you activate it by saying “wake,” all of the correspondence done after being recorded at the parent company server. 

In the past, we have already seen multiple criminal cases in which law-enforcement have demanded the data obtained via Alexa from Amazon as testimony in the trial. Apart from potential criminality aside, these smart home and security devices can paint a picture of how you behave when no one is watching you.

By Product Of Smart Home And Security

There’s an unintended result for introducing smart home and security technology in your home. 

Indirect monitoring of behavior, which means evaluating domestic behavior from a cost perspective. By reading the data from smart meters, the relationship between technology and inhabitant changed. 

The meter which was supposed to provide feedback on energy efficiency was now a behavioral surveillance center. The person who had been accountable for installing the device is now the sole observer of the rest of the inhabitant’s activities. 

Monitoring a data of a meter is relatively low on the spectrum of intrusion, right? But what about the unexpected consequences of this type of within-home surveillance? When does this monitoring of behavior become intrusive? What influence does this new form of surveillance have on a person’s sense of the home space and their sovereignty to use it as they wish?

Unexpected Consequences

We live in a society where passive surveillance and reality TV have diminished our sense of right and wrong regarding privacy in general. It’s one thing that law enforcement surveil someone to prevent or solve a crime. Still, it is entirely another to actively monitor people you may know and have a personal relationship with without their knowledge. 

Should there not be restraints in place to protect neighbors against remote and recorded voyeurism as they go on with their lives? Participants in reality TV shows do intentionally sign up for such participation, after all. While perhaps unintended at the point of acquisition, smart technology such as the smart doorbell and security cameras can encourage privacy’s ultimate intrusion.

Privacy is one of the essential values that people attach to the meaning of “home.” Installing smart home devices which collect and distribute information about our actions and decisions within the home could unintentionally encourage the big brother approach to cohabit, parenting, and neighboring, threatening our core connection with these uniquely emotional spaces. 

We suggest that there isn’t enough knowledge and understanding around the connection of decaying privacy from within the home. Are we, as inhabitants, ready for the result of monitoring our ability to retreat and be ourselves without apology or judgment? And how will organizations, service providers, and manufacturers trading off such technology be affected in the long run if they don’t take effort and explore the repercussions of technology on security and privacy within the home now?

While it is everyone’s right to protect and secure their homes and privacy, one should ask themselves, is it worth their humanity? 

The consequences of smart homes and security products may result in their rejection long run, but there won’t be anything left to protect anymore.

There are few other ways to protect your home security and privacy, including using the best VPNs on your devices or merely maximizing your Wi-Fi network security to keep hackers and other third parties, government, or private authorities from snooping in. While they may not be as efficient as Smart home and security devices, they can protect your privacy to some extent.