Building a smart home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

Do you do any online shopping? What year is your car?

What kind of device do you use to make calls and send messages when you aren’t using a landline at home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

Do you do any online shopping? What year is your car?

What kind of device do you use to make calls and send messages when you aren’t using a landline at home?

How is that remotely related to having my thermostat hacked and held ransom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

Do you do any online shopping? What year is your car?

What kind of device do you use to make calls and send messages when you aren’t using a landline at home?

How is that remotely related to having my thermostat hacked and held ransom?

All expose countless amounts of personal info and data to be marketed and sold to other companies, or stolen by nefarious entities.

Your thermostat is not going to be hacked and held for ransom. And if it was (it won’t be), don’t you think you’d just remove it and put in another one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

OP here and I think this is a silly argument. I am FAR MORE concerned about my social security and other info and getting my identity stolen.
Thanks for the input. I don't want any cameras (except maybe the front door) but I am super interested in motorized blinds and heated floors (moving to a colder climate).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

OP here and I think this is a silly argument. I am FAR MORE concerned about my social security and other info and getting my identity stolen.
Thanks for the input. I don't want any cameras (except maybe the front door) but I am super interested in motorized blinds and heated floors (moving to a colder climate).

Highly recommend cameras around the house, motorized blinds, and heated bathroom floors. I am the one with smart home installed but turned off the whole system. Cameras, motorized, and heated bathroom floors are the most used in our house. Your house does not have to be "smart" to have them. That's why I suggested to have a list of what you need, do research on them, and explore options/companies to install them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

OP here and I think this is a silly argument. I am FAR MORE concerned about my social security and other info and getting my identity stolen.
Thanks for the input. I don't want any cameras (except maybe the front door) but I am super interested in motorized blinds and heated floors (moving to a colder climate).

Highly recommend cameras around the house, motorized blinds, and heated bathroom floors. I am the one with smart home installed but turned off the whole system. Cameras, motorized, and heated bathroom floors are the most used in our house. Your house does not have to be "smart" to have them. That's why I suggested to have a list of what you need, do research on them, and explore options/companies to install them.

I have been doing enough research just to be dangerous. So do your items run off WiFi or Ethernet cable? I am reading it’s best not to use a bunch of different WiFi controlled things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

OP here and I think this is a silly argument. I am FAR MORE concerned about my social security and other info and getting my identity stolen.
Thanks for the input. I don't want any cameras (except maybe the front door) but I am super interested in motorized blinds and heated floors (moving to a colder climate).

Highly recommend cameras around the house, motorized blinds, and heated bathroom floors. I am the one with smart home installed but turned off the whole system. Cameras, motorized, and heated bathroom floors are the most used in our house. Your house does not have to be "smart" to have them. That's why I suggested to have a list of what you need, do research on them, and explore options/companies to install them.

I have been doing enough research just to be dangerous. So do your items run off WiFi or Ethernet cable? I am reading it’s best not to use a bunch of different WiFi controlled things.

Perfect. My cameras are through Wifi but remote control for the blinds and heated floors. There are options to connect all of them to wifi, for the convenience of controlling things when we're not home but like I said I don't like that idea, especially if I loose my phone, my whole house is under controlled by someone else, until I realize I loose my phone to do something. Again, people have reasons to do certain things. Although I see the convenience of technology, I only feel comfortable to a certain point. Certainly, building a smart home is cool and that helps me stay updated with what is out there but it does not necessarily mean I will use all features.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor runs all smart features of his house through wires. His wifi is only for guests. He does not trust wifi. He is an attorney fyi...

[Anonymous]

The more computers, the worse quality of products. We’ve been through so many refrigerators with all the computer touchscreens because they crap put faster

[Anonymous]

Argh, our lights are run through Siri but she recognizes my husband’s voice not mine or the kids. It takes several attempts to get the Christmas tree lights on with hallway lights or holiday music coming on instead. Forget ever dimming any the way we want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are talking about starting the building process in the next year. We have several items in our house that have been added in recent years with "smart" functions but have little experience beyond Alexa, Schlage locks, ring cameras. I would love to have smart features if we build, but where do we even start? Are there whole house systems and where would you recommend to begin researching them? Is this something the builder will know or are there separate "smart home" consultants?

Start with a list of features that you want to be "smart" in your house i.e. lights to be turned on/off using apps, door lock, garage, appliances, etc. Do you want all of them to be centralized smart in one place or you want them individually smart with their own app? Ask builder to what level of smart that they are aware of and what can they do? Thing is they will outsource this to a sub who can do this, it's part of your building cost, so make sure you're on top of what you want and be knowledgeable about them.

Our home was built "smart" and we turned the whole system off and don't use them. The idea of the system is hacked and controlled by hacker scares us. And your behavior data is collected and used for AI. It's beyond anything we can comprehend.

I’ve never understood this line of thinking. Hackers want data, large companies’ financial mostly, or individual money accounts, and would have zero interest in spending the time to break into your system to control your lights on and off.

You are woefully naive.

There are hackers who simply like to do mischief. The thrill is simply hacking just to hack. Imagine going on vacation and coming back to a $2000 heating bill because a hacker thought it'd be funny to run your AC at 55 degrees for weeks on end. Then there were creepy hackers who hack into all of the cameras people setup in their homes. They simpy live stream peoples' homes to the Internet because there are many people out there who enjoy voyeurism. They even streamed cameras from people who had them in their childrens' rooms.

IoT in your home and smart everything is the dumbest idea ever..

This isn't really a thing. I'm sorry you have to worry so much about things that will never happen.

Keep sticking your head in the sand with your smart dumb homes:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/website-live-streaming-security-cameras-private-1.6083168

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/02/08/security-camera-privacy-hacking/

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/05/rings-privacy-failures-led-spying-and-harassment-through-home-security-cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/Hacked-ring-home-security-cameras.html

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/nest-spying-hack,news-19290.html

https://www.pcmag.com/news/turning-a-nest-smart-thermostat-into-a-data-stealing-spy-in-15-seconds

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hacker-compromised-family-s-wi-fi-taunted-family-with-thermostat-camera-for-24-hours

https://www.wired.com/story/kalay-iot-bug-video-feeds/


By all means 'upgrade' (i.e..more like downgrade) your home with all of the smart crap and IoT. You deserve to have your entire life exposed and all of your data put on the Internet for being woefully naive.


How did humans ever live before their microwaves, dishwashers, and laundry machines could connect to the Internet!!???

Don't put cameras inside your house. Why would you even need that for security? (Baby cams are a different story).

The Nest thermostat required physical access to hack, not over the internet.

You're missing the entire point. There are multiple examples of allllll of the security holes this IoT crap brings to your home. A lot of this garbage sends data back via the cloud to a centralized location where hackers could easily target to get reams of your info.


And you are dreadfully wrong. Hackers can now install ransomware on all of the IoT crap in your home from hundreds of miles away:

https://iotsecurityfoundation.org/the-iot-ransomware-threat-is-more-serious-than-you-think/


Imagine the day you come home to find your thermostat stuck at 90 degrees until you pay some hacker $1000 to unlock it so you can use it again.


But by all means, continue to stick your head in the sand and keep introducing gaping security holes into your life for no reason. You deserve to be hacked.

OP here and I think this is a silly argument. I am FAR MORE concerned about my social security and other info and getting my identity stolen.
Thanks for the input. I don't want any cameras (except maybe the front door) but I am super interested in motorized blinds and heated floors (moving to a colder climate).

Highly recommend cameras around the house, motorized blinds, and heated bathroom floors. I am the one with smart home installed but turned off the whole system. Cameras, motorized, and heated bathroom floors are the most used in our house. Your house does not have to be "smart" to have them. That's why I suggested to have a list of what you need, do research on them, and explore options/companies to install them.

I have been doing enough research just to be dangerous. So do your items run off WiFi or Ethernet cable? I am reading it’s best not to use a bunch of different WiFi controlled things.

Anything that can be run via Ethernet, run it via Ethernet. Some things can use Ethernet both for data and power (POE). Often this is how security cameras will be set up - don’t rely on battery powered wifi cameras.

Some smart switches just connect via wifi, but the better ones (Lutron) have a proprietary wireless network that utilizes a hub and then won’t interfere with your home’s WiFi signal.

Make sure you also set up a robust internet and wifi network which means for larger homes install access points using POE, usually in ceiling hallways on each floor in centralized locations.

Run more Ethernet to more places than you could possibly imagine now when it’s a whole lot easier then after your home is built. And run it to a location where you can install a lot of networking equipment, etc.