Keeping laws in line with emerging technology is challenging, but in many cases the people buying the technology still have to figure out what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour. “The technology is changing, society is trying to catch up and adapt,” says Jason Nurse, a computer scientist at the University of Kent in England, who studies inside and outside threats to cybersecurity. “If someone was in a room reading a book most people wouldn’t walk in and just turn off the lights and leave. Because, why would you do that? But in IoT incidences, if you can turn off someone’s smart light from a remote location, hey, that’s having a laugh.”
Over time, however, similarly unusual happenings might make you question the equality of your relationship. “It often takes the accumulation of minor things until you realise, actually, I’m in an unhealthy relationship that’s not normal,” Tanczer says. If one person in the household is the account administrator of everyday items like the heating system, kettle and washing machine, they can each be used as tools of coercion and control. If these devices stop functioning properly, only one person can put things straight again – a classic method of enforcing dependence.
Consumers need to be more aware of what they are bringing into their homes when they buy devices that work as part of the Internet of Things, argues Irina Brass, a lecturer in regulation, innovation, and public policy at University College London, who studies emerging technologies. “I think awareness is fundamentally lacking at the moment,” she says. “Beforehand, you would have one particular device or, say, maximum, two devices: your computer and your phone that would be connected to the internet. But now, increasingly, you have a number of devices in your home environment... the connectivity aspect of it is quite invisible [and] consumers are not aware of what this connectivity brings.”
Currently, smart devices are actually still relatively dumb. Their core feature is their wireless capability and connection to other devices in the home. The “smart” label is a misnomer. But that is likely to change. As IoT systems make greater use of artificial intelligence and become more automated, we all need to teach ourselves about just how they can be used and misused.
* Alex Riley is an award-winning science writer who is currently working on a book into the treatment of depression. He is @alex_l_riley on twitter.
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