A home smoke alarm that connects to a user’s smartphone (Associated Press)
The idea of ”Internet of Things” technology depends on making everything that surrounds the human being connected to the Internet, and between them, in order to act intelligently as a service to the consumer.
When talking about the “internet of things”, “smart homes” get the most attention, partly because of the diversity of their applications, which include products such as smart locks, home robots, and smart refrigerators.
However, this technology accompanies many fears that it may cause a violation of the user’s privacy due to the fact that it encompasses all the details of his life, especially if hackers manage to penetrate smart home networks, which prompted it to be marketed in another way, as it has recently become described as a way to transform a person into what is described as technology slavery, to A site that allows him to control and harness it for his service.
In a review published by the British government last year, Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out that “internet of things” technologies would make people more productive, healthier and more efficient, help provide them with comfort and reduce energy consumption.
According to the mentioned review, the “internet of things” is likely to affect society in a way that exceeds the impact of the digital revolution, which raises many questions about the nature of these effects and their negative or positive repercussions on humans and societies.
Smart oven controlled by the Getty app.
Concerns .. Cautions
Monitoring the health of the elderly and patients is one of the important advantages provided by the “Internet of Things” as it allows the patient to stay in his home to be monitored remotely without the need to stay in the hospital. These technologies are able to capture the patient’s vital signs, such as pulse rate, sweating and oxygen percentage in blood, and send it to the hospital, which contributes to reducing health care costs by a significant amount.
In a report published by the US Federal Trade Commission at the beginning of this year, it indicated that there are 25 billion devices connected to the Internet, and warned of the obstacles to security and privacy.
Emphasizing the dangers of this matter, the American company HP warned of 250 security vulnerabilities associated with “internet of things” technologies, while British lawyer specializing in political and technical affairs, Julia Bowles, warned that the “internet of things” may provide an ideal infrastructure for human monitoring. .
It is necessary to pay attention and be wary of the security risks that may result from the “internet of things”, according to a professor of digital economy at the University of Nottingham, Derek McCauley, who warned of things, such as the ability of thieves to penetrate smart home networks to know the sleeping times of their residents to steal them, or the hacker was able to stop the system Heating during the harsh winter days, which may cause dangers to the lives of the elderly, and other possibilities that make these hacking operations a means to commit crimes and terrorist operations.
Using the phone to control a home device connected to the Internet sometimes requires passing information to the company that developed it (Getty Images)
User revolution
Hacking smart home networks may not only pose risks to users’ privacy and safety, but can also exploit the matter to manipulate energy bills to increase or decrease them.
In fact, the data of “internet of things” users is not their property, and here lies one of the points of concern. For example, if the user wants to unlock the door of his house upon arrival, his smartphone sends the command via the Internet to the cloud service responsible for locking the door, which in turn opens it, Any potential breach of the service would lead to real disasters.
Internet founder Tim Berners-Lee is working with a group of researchers to build a system that allows consumers to control the movement of their data over the Internet, where he expected what he described as a revolution by users to demand their data back.
It is expected that law enforcement agencies around the world will find effective solutions and controls to protect the data of “internet of things” users, especially since these technologies have begun to gain an increasing spread, especially after the entry of major players in the world of technology to this field, such as Google and Apple .
