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Clouds can be nasty!

The "smart home" is apparently a thing.

Thanks to companies such as Amazon and Google, you can now control almost every aspect of your home simply by chatting to your phone or a Wifi-enabled speaker.

Lights-on, lights-off, record video, see who's at the door... it's all just a touch, a swipe, a gesture or a voice command away -- whether you're sitting in your living room or half a world away.

How fantastic is that?

Well, to be honest, it's not really a very good idea... as one poor guy in the US discovered last month.

This guy had a smart-home that was effectively connected via Amazon's cloud-based home automation services.

Everything was working swimmingly until suddenly it all stopped.

He was automatically logged out of his Amazon account and could not log back in.

An email directed him to call a particular number to talk to an exec from the company.

On making the call, he was told that his smart home services were suspended because an Amazon delivery driver alleged that he'd used racist remarks during a delivery a few days earlier.

Confused, the man checked the video from his front door camera (which fortunately wasn't an Amazon Ring) and found that the delivery had been done at a time when the house was actually empty and the only sound was the automated response voice of the camera which asked if the person approaching needed help.

Armed with this video evidence, he got back to Amazon and they eventually reinstated his smart-home cloud-based services.

However, this raises HUGE issues and rings alarm bells that ought not be ignored.

Firstly, what right did Amazon have to discontinue services that he was paying for using equipment that he'd bought and owned?

Secondly, why were those services abruptly discontinued without any kind of warning, solely on the unevidenced allegations of a delivery driver?

Thirdly, does it make *any* sense to invest in potentially thousands of dollars of automation electronics for which someone else has their finger on a kill-switch?

This whole situation highlights the risks associated with technology that is cloud-based or which relies on someone else's computer to actually deliver the intended functionality. Such systems always have the potential to disenfranchise the owner due to technical failure or something as simple as a policy change.

Even if there's no absolute failure or denial of service, there's always the guarantee that prices for the services on which such tech is reliant will increase over time, perhaps significantly and abruptly.

Given how cheap and readily available very powerful computers have become, does it really make sense to rely on someone else's computer to perform such simple functions as home-automation?

Even a humble Raspberry Pi has more than enough power to coordinate the function of all your smart-devices so it seems ridiculous to outsource this role to a computer owned and operated by someone else and pay a monthly stipend for doing so.

This situation also highlights the fact that we are becoming increasingly reliant on a tiny number of tech mega-corporations. If/when these corporations decide that they have a right to force their ideologies, beliefs and standards on those who use their services there's not a lot we can do about it. The fact that this tiny handful of corporations have an effective monopoly on the supply of the services we're increasingly becoming dependent on means the luxury of simply shifting to another provider is not even an option.

From where I stand, this becomes an unacceptable vulnerability for anyone who chooses to become dependant/reliant on these cloud-based services. I for one, will not be exposing myself to this risk any more than is absolutely necessary.

How do readers feel?

Is it inevitable that we will continue to cede control of everything we own to corporations and governments simply for the sake of convenience?

Will we truly realise what we've lost before every last vestige of self-reliance is gone?

Carpe Diem folks!

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