The “Internet of Things” is a scam
I&#x27;m still not clear on what the value proposition is supposed to be here. I can understand why hardware manufacturers are excited about the idea of charging more money for their devices, and I can understand why software people are excited about the idea of muscling into the world of consumer goods by pushing software into ordinary household objects, but what good is any of this stuff supposed to do - even theoretically - for the people they are expecting to pay for it?<p>Why would you want to take something as straightforward, reliable, and inexpensive as a thermostat and jam a bunch of complicated, fritzy, instantly-obsolescent Internet hardware into it? I don&#x27;t understand, even in theory, what good this would do. Are there really people who want to futz with their thermostats all the time? I can&#x27;t remember the last time I&#x27;ve looked at or even thought about the one in my house.<p>And how am I supposed to trust these people? Nobody gets security right, hardware companies least of all; of course these gadgets are going to come encumbered with security holes, bizarre phone-home policies, &quot;you must log in through our terrible cloud service&quot; systems, and the most draconian license agreements possible guaranteeing that none of their many issues can be fixed. They&#x27;re going to use these things as marketing opportunities, you just know it. How can they resist? And the implications once law enforcement agencies get their hands on the data streams!!<p>Of course every new technology has some downsides compared to whatever it is designed to replace. I&#x27;m just baffled by the whole &quot;IoT&quot; phenomenon because the downsides are numerous and blatant, but nobody ever seems to talk about the upsides. The people selling this stuff appear to believe that the benefits are so obvious it&#x27;s not necessary to mention them, but my imagination is not adequate to the task of guessing what they might be.