How to defend our privacy in the era of smart home?

Smart homes are becoming more and more popular. The daily furniture that can be seen everywhere, such as electric lights, thermostats (regulators), TVs and even microphones, has become more and more intelligent. It only needs a simple command language or feedback instructions from the app, so you can complete the room temperature without moving. Set, switch lights or record TV programs in advance.

What does this mean?

With the convenience brought by smart homes, side effects are also coming. When these devices (data) are "black", users may lose important property data or health information.

Even large-scale attacks that were difficult to accomplish in the past have benefited from the fragile firewalls of high-volume devices, and hackers have been able to create a wide range of networks, as happened in October last year, including Major sites such as Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times were affected.

However, perhaps it is still a new thing, and the proportion of “black” is not too high. According to research data given by an institution (Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company), only 10% of American consumers call it The device has been "black". However, the average amount of damage to these victims has reached $1,000-$5,000.

“Thuss that look like eye-catching, cool things are still going on,” said Lee Tien, an e-Sentimental Foundation lawyer. “And such things have always plagued us.”

Naturally, as smart home devices become more popular, the area of ​​such victims will become larger and larger. Therefore, the safety protection of smart home equipment has become more and more important. The following are some suggestions from network security experts in the smart home field.

Investigate before buying

Similar to products such as smart microphones, lighting systems or televisions, the first recommendation is a trusted brand before buying.

Liviu Arsene, an expert from the well-known security software brand Bitdefender, suggests that brands such as Amazon and Google will consider the security of their products during product development. So, before buying, remember to check if the manufacturer of this product can provide software updates to fix security risks and vulnerabilities in the future.

David Britton, deputy director of the Fraud Group's fraud prevention department, said consumers should carefully read the product's privacy policy, at least to ensure that the vendor cannot be a "time bomb" that threatens user privacy.

“What data is the device grabbing from the client?” Britton said, “Is this data stored separately from the device? Will the data be fed back to the parent company?”

Taking Amazon Echo as an example, Amazon says its built-in Alexa Smart Assistant can automatically download software updates and protect against security threats. And only when the user issues the "Alexa" command, the Echo data will be transmitted to the Amazon server (for information feedback). The possibility that Echo may record the user's daily conversations is greatly reduced.

Google Home, another tech giant's smart home hardware product, is also equipped with regular software updates and a powerful firewall (a skill similar to invalidating devices when devices are tampered with). Similar to Echo, Google Home will only start detecting user languages ​​when the user issues a "O.K. Google" or "Hey Google" launch.

However, some big brand manufacturers have sent out things that make consumers unhappy. For example, ProPublica exposes the well-known smart TV manufacturer Vizio by default to the user's habit tracking and sharing with the advertiser, and the advertiser can use this information to know the user's other device ownership.

ZTE WIFI Dongle

A WiFi Dongle is a pocket-size device that connects to your smartphone, tablet or laptop and allows you to access the internet while you`re traveling. It is portable, easy to carry, convenient to use, and very affordable.

4G Wifi Dongle,LTE Dongle,Oem Dongle, FDD TDD Dongle

Shenhzhen Tongheng Weichuang Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.thwclte.com