I was doing a little paper folding and watching a dvd recently when I got a knock on my door. It was a guy trying to sell home security systems – or, rather, smart home systems.
The company was one I had heard of and though I wasn’t really interested I figured I could hear him out. He had an ipad with demos, talked about the features and deals, and then asked what features I’d be interested in.
Instead, I told him that I was actually more concerned about introducing potential vulnerabilities into his secure system the more devices were connected to it. If my phone was compromised or stolen, or I hooked up a “smart fridge” with an unsecure password to my network, then his system – no matter how secure – could be compromised as well and my physical and digital would be at risk.
I apparently tipped my hand and he asked me if I worked in a computer field – and when I said I did he said he could just tell. Yeah, right. He didn’t address the connected devices issue (surprise), but instead went on to tell me about the video archives on a terabyte drive and the cloud storage.
[Do I want video of what goes on in my backyard stored on the internet? No, I do not.]
Then he asked if I knew how many gigabytes were in a terabyte.
Really? Quizzing the geek? You wanna go down that road?
I told him “a thousand” with a barely suppressed eyeroll as I mentally rounded and he replied that he thought it wasn’t exactly a thousand. I sighed quietly, agreed, and told him it was 1024 because it was by powers of 2.
Sigh, again.
The deal included free equipment and installation – and then $80 a month for a system that I didn’t want or need.
It’s just me here and my cat. I’m careful about locking my doors and I don’t really own anything that valuable. If someone does break in when I’m not here, they’re going to really disappointed. If I am here, well, nothing says “crazy homeowner” quite like a katana.
So, no sale on a smart home. I’m fine with my dumb, but interesting, house with physical locks and a carefully monitored network. And I hate the idea that I’m supposed to feel afraid. And that a camera on my doorbell will somehow make me safer. Big brother is here – and we’re spying on ourselves.
And, seriously? Don’t try to out-geek a geek. We are not to be trifled with.