Tag: connected devices

I’m sitting in my kitchen typing this blog on my laptop, while I respond to emails and texts on my cellphone. My kids are on their PCs for their sixth-grade Google meets, while watching TikTok videos and playing online video games (which they shouldn’t be doing during remote learning, but it works for the premise of this blog). The use of multiple devices simultaneously is a scene at the Harris household that has been a routine occurrence for more than a year now. Millions of other...

The loo, bathroom, restroom, el bano, latrine, water closet, washroom, powder room, lavatory, outhouse, toilet, commode, throne, potty … whatever your special name is for this place, we all know others shouldn’t be “privy” to our private moments here. But, as technology advances and new “smart” apparatuses tempt the must-have-it-all-type of consumer, privacy wanes and cybercriminals find new ways into the more personal parts of people’s lives. Case in point,...

The more I think about it, the more I realize I'm a “house purist.” I like my home to be as free as possible from “extra” electronics of any kind. Sure, I have a laptop, smartphone and a rebuilt iPAD from 10 years ago, and I'm connected to the Internet, but I don't have cable TV and quite frankly, I refuse to put a voice assistant of any kind in my home — ever! It creeps me out that some random person can be listening, inserting themselves into my daily existence...

As more and more people connect IoT devices to their homes, making them smarter, living machines, the more fodder hackers have to breach systems and gain access to consumers' personal identifiable information, or even gain entrance into their humble abodes. The fact is, no security standards exist for IoT manufactures to follow when creating networked devices. Lawmakers and states are stepping up, looking at ways to help protect consumers. Industry talk of late about protecting owners of...