by Angela Guess
Nicholas Carr recently opined in The LA Times, “We’re now in the early stages of the so-called Internet of Things. Companies are rushing to install sensors and transmitters in all manner of consumer and industrial goods. These network-connected ‘things’ will be able to beam reports on our behavior to corporate databases. We won’t be tracked just by our smartphones. We’ll be tracked by our cars, our homes, our clothes, our appliances and the machines and tools we use in our jobs. We’re beginning to see the extent of the surveillance the Internet of Things will entail. Thermostats and smoke detectors sold by Nest, a unit of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, collect information on a home’s temperature, humidity and lighting as well as the movements of people in rooms. Amazon’s Echo, a voice-activated home automation device, records conversations and stores them in Amazon’s cloud… Vicks sells a rectal thermometer with a Bluetooth transmitter and accompanying smartphone app… There doesn’t seem to be anywhere companies won’t go to collect information about us.”
Carr goes on, “As consumers, we’ve always divulged information about ourselves in the course of buying products and services. If you want to get a comfortable pair of hiking boots at a local shoe store, you’re going to need to let the clerk measure your feet. If you want to build a new house that suits your lifestyle, you’re going to have to share with an architect details about how you and your family live. Technology companies would argue that the new network-connected goods fit this well-established pattern. Collecting information about us allows them to deliver more personalized products. But there’s a big difference. In the past, exchanges of information were limited to particular purchases. The shoe clerk and the architect didn’t collaborate in preparing a detailed profile of you that they could then share with or sell to other companies. And they certainly didn’t keep tabs on you as you went through your day.”
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