Internet of Things news and analysis: smart home, industrial internet of things, enterprise internet of things, and more. Joins co-hosts Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel as they dissect the week's latest IoT news. Stacey Higginbotham has covered technology since 2001. In my years covering tech I became more fascinated by the stuff we were able to do on vast computing networks and ever speedier mobile and wireline broadband networks. Finally all of the elements of the technology I’ve covered in more than a decade have culminated in this moment and we’re creating the internet of things. No matter what you call it, we’re at a pivotal moment in the evolution of human creativity, business creation and productivity gains. We could see the gains we make in these next few years help us conserve resources and let us lead safer and healthier lives or we could open the door to a dystopian society where our every thought is monitored and our every utterance is effectively for sale. I hope to explore all of these issues, the people who will make it possible and the devices that will lead us there in the IoT Podcast. I hope you will join me.
https://iotpodcast.com/
Episode 170: Smart stents, surveillance tech and Alexa-powered faucets
This week’s episode begins on a grim note, as Kevin and I discuss the New York Times’ story about how smart home gadgets can become another point of control in abusive relationships. From there we touch on the new Wi-Fi WPA3 security standard and Tesla’s new plan to charge users for data and what it means for IoT. Kevin shares the new Alexa for iOS feature and explains why it’s useful, while I talk about a startup that wants to detect pollution at granular levels. We share news of a smart stent, smart park benches and my experience with an Alexa-enabled faucet. We then answer a question from a reader who wants to buy Abode’s security system but wonders what gadgets will work with it.
This smart stent is one long antenna with a pressure sensor. Image courtesy of the University of British Columbia.For the guest segment, I visit with Cyrus Farivar, who is a reporter at Ars Technica and wrote a book on surveillance tech called “Habeas Data”. We discuss the current legal underpinnings of privacy law in the US and how it has evolved. Our conversation covers the recently decided Carpenter case, the 1967 case that established the concept of a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” and how the government could use our connected devices against us. You’ll learn a lot, but you may want to unplug your Echo.
Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Cyrus Farivar author of “Habeas Data”
Sponsor: Control4
- How to reset connected devices and be a decent human being
- Y’all had some great ideas on connected cameras
- Alexa, ask Delta to turn on faucet
- Where the expectation of privacy came from
- What to ask device makers about government snooping