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Yep that's my concern too.

I'd actually go for a little home automation, perhaps a Philips Hue or two if they were LAN only.

99% of these things should be blocking WAN access. Even the smartphone apps should be limiting themselves to never be on the net.

Unlike gmail and facebook actions driving ads, I fail to see what manufacturers get out of the data from when I use my fridge, toothbrush or thermostat. Seriously, I don't see what earthly use it is for them, unless next step is an ad driven toothbrush.

Every time I see an article about what's been found on Shodan I shudder. It's a very stupid future.




> toothbrush

Incentive for dentists to recommend their internet enabled toothbrush so they can suggest specific brushing plans and monitor how well the person has been adhering to their regular brushing. There might also be some software on the dentist side for managing all of this.

I have one of these toothbrushes, that's roughly pulled from the features section of the manual. (I have it because I can track how well I keep to brushing my teeth over time, well worth the ounce of prevention.)

> thermostat

The local power company has a program where they supply a smart thermostat that they can regulate during peak use. With certain caveats of course, I think you can opt out of the automatic regulation several times a month.

> fridge

Haven't seen a practical use for this yet.


I have a recent Samsung refrigerator, which has a nasty habit of forming ice in the fan blades. Samsung refuses to further warranty it....

So, I use 2 thermistors and a photoresistor and equipped them in my fridge. I used an Arduino Nano clone with a nRF24L01+ chip and MySensors library for getting data.

The data then is posted to my MQTT server (Mosquitto) and also saved in a file. The file is parsed by a graph library and is displayed on my http://[hash].onion/fridge . Also, if I detect >45f or higher after last fridge door open event, I throw an alarm (chirp on piezo speaker and email).

And yes, It's saved us at least 1 fridge load of groceries. We can't afford to buy a fridge every 3 years, even though throw-away culture sure would want us to.


> so they can suggest specific brushing plans

For me that's a hell of a stretch. Just seems hellishly complex for checking the preferred 2 mins of brushing. Timer sure, especially for the kids. But, if people see real benefit...

> thermostat that they can regulate during peak use

OK, that's a benefit that's difficult to fault. Wasn't aware of any doing that.




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