- I'm your robo host, Chenae.
(upbeat music)
Welcome to Ask Firefox.
Today we're talking about the internet of things.
The army of smart devices that are everywhere.
Smart lights and camera doorbells and robot vacuums.
Should we trust these devices
that have access to all our private lives?
We'll go over a few of the devices in this episode.
But if you wanna see more,
you should check out our buyer's guide we just dropped,
Privacy Not Included.
We let you know which tech devices
treat your data with the respect it deserves.
Check out the link in the description.
Now, let's get to this week's first question.
I work for a company that rhymes with Bamazon.
Should I be worried when talking about my boss
near my Bamazon Smart devices?
Before diving into this,
we need to make sure we're not being monitored.
Alexa, self destruct.
(explosion)
Whoo. Great.
Now we should be safe.
So voice activated smart devices are always listening,
but they're not listening for your juicy secrets.
They only respond to their wake words,
Alexa, Okay Google, Hey Siri,
or at least they're supposed to.
A recent study found that most smart speakers
will wake up about once per hour on a false positive.
These false positives are often triggered by words
similar to their wake words or by dialogue of TV shows.
That's happened to me before.
Huh? What? Who said Chenae?
This may sound scary,
but the data being collected during these false positives
helps the device discern what's a real command
and what's a fake one.
When a command is determined to be a false positive,
the microphone shuts off within seconds.
Not that it's any less scary
that they are slowly learning
when they are not being summoned.
So then what's happening when they're just chilling?
Are they thinking?
That said, the practices of these companies
don't always keep your privacy in mind.
If you're concerned about potential risks,
a good way to avoid randomly triggering your smart assistant
is to mute the microphone when you're not using it.
Sure it turns into a paper weight until unmuted,
but it means you can dish on your boss
knowing they'll be none the wiser.
You should also look for any products
that keep your data stored locally rather than in the cloud.
Local storage is always safer
as it can't be accessed from outside your home
and it's nice to know that
you can always take a hammer to your toaster
if you think it heard your secrets.
Next question.
My smart lights keep turning on and off in my living room.
What should I be more worried about ghosts or hackers?
Every new device you add to your network
opens you up to potential security risks,
even if it's just a smart appliance.
When an IOT device is hacked,
it can lead to scary, even Poltergeist like situations.
Mommy.
My garage door opening and closing on its own
is enough of a sign for me to burn the house down
and move to another state.
I'm talking Mississippi.
So how do we prevent this?
Well, one of the biggest issues
plaguing the internet of things, no standardization.
Let's look at it this way.
You've got a smart doorknob and a smart hairbrush.
Your smart doorknob gets regular firmware updates
from the manufacturer.
However, the hairbrush you spent all your birthday money on
hasn't been updated in years,
and there are massive security flaws
that have gone unresolved.
Even though your doorknob is as secure to the outside world
as it could possibly be,
your hairbrush provides a potential backdoor
into your network
exposing not just your doorknob,
but all your devices to whomever hacks in.
Mmm mmm mmm.
Lack of standardization is one of the major cause
of security flaws.
If you have five devices that each speak their own language,
they won't learn from the shortcomings of their peers.
However, a group of major tech companies
is working on a universal set of guidelines
called the Matter Standard
that aims to make smart devices more compatible
across the board.
For now, the best thing you can do before buying
is to read the privacy policy or code of conduct.
Like I mentioned before, you can also check out
our Privacy Not Included list
to see which devices are more secure than others.
They may not be so smart now, but what about years from now?
These things have evolved. Yah!
Let's jump to our next question.
If my smart devices are always learning,
will they eventually learned that they're smarter than me.
While we call these devices smart,
they're actually pretty dog on dumb.
They only really know their primary function
and the learning they're doing
is just making small adjustments to their existing features
to provide you with a better experience.
An important thing to pay attention to
when shopping for smart devices
is what hardware they're using.
For example, the smart brush mentioned earlier
has a microphone inside of it,
which the manufacturer claims is for
calculating the quality of your hair
based on the sound makes when you brush.
However, a microphone could also be used
to listen to your private bathroom singing
and sell that data to advertisers.
Next thing you know, you got a record deal.
While this may not be happening with this specific product,
it's important to be aware of the company's privacy policy
before buying a device
that has the ability to listen to you or watch you.
Just because something is advertised as
a solution to one problem
doesn't mean it can't create a new one.
And you can check that.
Uh oh Spaghetti-Os.
It looks like we're fresh out of time to talk about things
so make sure you tune in next week
where we'll continue to talk about stuff.
Have you ever had a smart device go rogue on you?
Tell us about it in the comments.
Don't forget to hit us up on social.
We're on IG and Twitter.
Make sure to give this video a thumbs up
and subscribe for new videos every week.
I'm your host, Chenae.
See you next time.
(upbeat music)