In 2015, a New York Times opinion piece titled 'Why Smart Objects may be a Dumb Idea' called the proliferation of smart objects a "train wreck in privacy and security." Now, several years later, I'm finding it harder and harder to disagree with this assessment. The latest example of the problems with this tech comes from Colorado, where smart meters recently took control of the home thermostats of tens of thousands of utility customers.
From a local news outlet
During the dog days of summer, it's important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes. ... Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner's Arvada home. "I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period," Talarico said. "It was hot." That's when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an "energy emergency." "Normally, when we see a message like that, we're able to override it," Talarico said. "In this case, we weren't. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79."
There is an argument to be made for adjusting our thermostat habits in light of climate change. But this argument is a red herring. Residential energy use is trivial when compared with the impacts of industry and the fossil fuel economy. There are a few areas where personal choice matters with respect to the environment. Sod grass lawns and small gas engines are both wretched polluters. But the real responsibility for reducing energy waste and emissions falls on energy and utility companies, not individual customers.
Some people might think it's okay for utilities to control the environments in people's homes. Just as some people probably believe that it makes sense for corporations to control other areas of our personal lives. I don't really know what to say to such people. Clearly, we inhabit different worlds.
Personally, I think technology should make us more free, not less free. And yet, there are forces in business and government pushing us in the opposite direction. An extreme example of this can be found in China's use of phone-based mandatory vaccine passports to control its population. When a major bank experienced problems and depositors started protesting, the government turned all of their vaccine passports red to prevent the protesters from leaving home.
The use of public health as a pretense for the exercise of political or economic control is freaky on its own. But when such action is articulated through emerging technologies, it's worse. Because society is still developing rules and norms around the use of these technologies, there's a very real risk that today's authoritarian overreach will become tomorrow's new normal.
I'm of the opinion that people should be free to determine the temperature of their homes. I think we should be free to protest banking corruption without being labeled covid positive by a phone app. I also think we should be free to protest intrusive government policies without having our financial accounts frozen. Have we reached the point where these are considered radical perspectives? I sure hope not.
New technology like smart devices should empower people, not transfer more of their power to the control regime. Unfortunately, the underlying purpose of much of this new tech seems to be precisely this transfer of power. Crises like climate change and pandemics provide the control regime with great excuses to take control of everything. At some point, we might begin asking ourselves why we allowed them to do so.
(Feature image from Pixabay.)
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