How much 'smart device' connected to the net 'monitor' the user's life and sending the information to the net?

Smart speakers that can use various functions just by talking to you, and smart devices that can operate home keys and air conditioners via the Internet have been adopted one after another in people's lives. On the other hand, TED 's presentation movie which tells about the aspect that should not be forgotten that "the user is being monitored" behind it is on the other hand.

What your smart devices know (and share) about you | Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu - YouTube


Cashmere Hill said that she was shocked when her husband gave "Amazon Echo" on her last birthday. Mr. Hill and her husband are working as a privacy and security expert in the technology industry and it seems that it was a shocking event that such a husband chose Amazon Echo as a present for his wife.

However, according to a survey by research firms, one in six adult Americans has a "smart speaker" like Amazon Echo. In other words, many Americans are always keeping the device in the center of their house keeping listening to the surrounding sounds.

Such "smart device" connected to the Internet is not limited to devices like Amazon Echo, but various devices such as smart light (lighting), smart lock (key), smart toilet, smart toy (toy), and smart sex toy "Smartization" is progressing with devices. These smart devices work interactively through apps and voice operations, but in reality it is normal to "talk" to someone other than the owner.

So Hill said that the bedroom in San Francisco decided to make a small room "smart home" to explore the real situation. Even the bed is smart in that room so that you can monitor the state of sleep every night.

Mr. Hill introduced a total of 18 smart devices in the room. And in order to monitor the communication that these devices are doing, Mr. Sulya Matz on the right side installed a special router that can monitor all Internet communications.

The aim is to know what kind of data is being sent to the server over the net by grasping the content each device is communicating with. The investigation period lasts for two months, during which time there was a period of opening the entire room for a whole week, but there was no occurrence of an hour of "digital silence" in which no data communication is carried out at all . In other words, some device was always sending data to the Internet.

When analyzing the data, it seems that everything that Mr. Hill happens when, when it happens, when I brush my teeth and when I leave home and when I will return home will be highlighted. Also, clearly see when you were watching TV and watching how much time. Normally, it is said that most people do not watch TV at Mr. Hill's house, but the only exception is when watching TV programs "Difficult People" and "Party Down", so when watching these programs, Longer things are also spoiled.

All this was clarified from the contents of the data that the television was sending to a server somewhere in the Internet. We know that "smart TV" is constantly acquiring and sending such data, and in 2017 the Federal Trade Commission of the United States told TV maker "VIZIO" $ 2.2 million (about 200 million There is also an event that imposes penalty of 50 million yen).

Of the smart devices in the house, Amazon Echo sent the most data, and he said that he continues to send packets of data at a rate of once every three minutes. This is the same situation even when you do not actually use Amazon Echo.

To purchase and use a smart device means that "your data is sent to the manufacturer" is not a few things that everyone should put in a corner of the head. However, it is a very strange behavior that if you think carefully, getting your own action data and keeping sending devices somewhere in the house you should be comfortable at the most.

Even data that seems not to be a big deal after collection will be collected in large quantities and become a state of "big data", there will be another meaning there. For example, although the data "number of times to brush teeth a day" may not be significant in itself, the insurance company "Beam" collects smart toothbrush data from 2015 so that policyholders We use it as a material to discount premiums.

There may be people thinking that this is a deal (trading) unique to the modern "smart society". By giving up a bit of your privacy, you can receive discounts on convenient functions and prices, which is a relationship of give and take.

But for Mr. Hill, Smart Home is not "a convenient and easy-to-live house" but a "stressful home". Since every device needs power supply, it occupies the outlet, downloads the application for each device to the smartphone, and requires login setting for each. "Smart smart brush" It is tough to take it that it is necessary to prepare a unique password.

Also, it seems that smart coffee makers who should be able to easily produce coffee were bothersome. Mr. Hill who was using a smart coffee maker "Behmor" working in cooperation with Amazon Echo seems to think that coffee will be completed simply by "Alexa, coffee is brewed" only, but actually I need to use a command like just commanding it using a nice term like "Alexa, ask Behmor to run quick start (Alexa, instruct Behmor to perform a quick start)" He said that. Mr. Hill says that it is not easy to remember such a command, and precisely instruct it in a situation that has not yet woken up yet.

Moreover, Echo Dot on the bed side did not recognize it well, so it was necessary to speak loudly every morning. Mr. Hill 's husband seems to have said about this, "I wish I could go to the kitchen and switch coffee makers."

Although this episode is like a digression, the smart device in the house gets user data in various forms and sends it. The number of profiles per user is created as many as the number of smart devices, and it is possible to determine the level of economic situation for each user. This technology developed by Facebook has also been patented.

The act of smart device tracking users is the same as our behavior being tracked when browsing the Internet with smartphones and PCs. In the case of a smart device, the tracking range extends to the time when it is relaxing at home from the time of only browsing, and even when sleeping in the bedroom.

The same is true for "smart sex toys" leading to the Internet. Originally it is a device to check each other's love through the Internet, but it is used by hacker survey "when", "where", "from what time" "how long" is used "how long" It was found that the data of how much the main body temperature rose was also transmitted to the manufacturer. According to Hill's question, "Why were we collecting such sensitive data?" The manufacturer replied, "This is part of a very important market research."

So far, Facebook and other SNSs have been able to use services for free, and their data has been sucked up and monitored. However, in the case of an IoT device such as a smart device, even if you have paid for it and you got that device, there are situations where your data is used for monetization by the manufacturer. It is important to consider what you actually are who benefit from smart devices.

Mr. Hill also urges manufacturers to develop services that take into account the privacy of users. Many people have already understood that their data is being used by companies when using the Internet, but equipment such as "key", "vacuum cleaner", "toothbrush" "sex toy" There are not many people who understand well that they are monitoring the behavior of.

Because smart devices often do not have a camera, users often do not feel that they are "watching" too much. Smart devices are secretly monitoring the user's lives and sending data in the form of "speakers", "television", or "vibrator".