Leaving your front door open

Today’s modern smart home appliances are capable of doing things we could never have imagined only a few decades ago.

An acquaintance of mine who has an affinity for the newest and the greatest decided to purchase an expensive new counter-top oven.  It was a technological wonder that included temperature sensors to cook everything perfectly, cameras to identify what was being cooked, sous vide capabilities for slow cooking, and a weight scale for the oven’s computer to use when determining cooking time after the camera identified what is cooking.  All the features could be controlled and monitored via a smart phone app.

Everything in the preceding paragraph is completely factual and these ovens can be found for sale today.  For me, having a smart phone app control the oven is a bit of an issue.  It is as if the salesperson who delivers the oven says to the owner: “From now on I want you to leave the front door of your house open and unlocked 24/7 so I can come in any time to check on the oven. And I might want to snoop around your other appliances, computers, tablets, cell phones, Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, etcetera, without telling you.”

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