Technology Issues in Smart Devices Can Cause Major Problems for Consumers

Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of devices that have the potential to revolutionize our daily lives. Smart devices promise to help us piece together a smart home, manage our energy consumption, and track our health and fitness at the push of a button. My 82 year-old grandmother has an iPad Air, which she uses every day to play games that keep her mind sharp, browse movies online that she can send to her entertainment console, and track her vitamin and medication intake. She once casually commented, “I don’t know what I would do without my iPad now.”

While embracing smart devices can lead to a bright future of connectivity and convenience, the technology may not be developed enough for us to so readily welcome them into our homes. Lately, there have been several cases showing that these so-called smart devices sometimes have serious flaws.

Out in the Cold

For example, the Nest Learning Thermostat—a smart thermostat that can be monitored and adjusted via a smartphone app—recently experienced a software glitch that left many of its customers in the cold. This may seem like a somewhat trivial issue—unless you are elderly, have an infant, or fear your pipes may burst. Nest reported that the issue had been fixed for 99.5% of customers, yet the fix involves a complicated nine-step manual restart (to Nest’s credit, it does offer to send an electrician to your home for assistance), and 0.5% of customers still did not have a solution.

Though Nest is arguably one of the best smart thermostats on the market, its technology issues don’t stop there. In January 2016, it was reported that Nest Learning Thermostats were leaking ZIP codes over Wi-Fi, meaning that any person walking or driving by with the right equipment could intercept that information. While leaked ZIP codes are probably not the most serious security concern, it does lead back to one of the main issues around smart devices today: are these devices secure, and can consumers trust them?

Nest is not the only company experiencing technology issues. Researchers who discovered the Nest ZIP code leaks also found the Sharx security camera and the PixStar photo frame were sending unencrypted data that could potentially be intercepted. The Honeywell Lyric, a rival smart thermostat to the Nest product, was reviewed as having glitches in its flagship geofencing feature. In April 2015, Nick Bilton—the New York Times writer who covered the Nest glitch—also reported on the security flaws he had experienced with the wireless fob for his Prius. Finally, the Fitbit, a fitness/health-focused wearable, was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit over its supposedly inaccurate heart rate monitoring.

A Growing Market

Pointing out these technology issues is not meant to scare consumers away from buying a smart thermostat, a keyless car, wearables, or any other popular smart device. These devices will inevitably become a part of our lives. Guidehouse Insights estimates that the global market for communicating and smart thermostats (and their respective software and services) alone will reach $2.3 billion by 2023. The point is that it is our responsibility as consumers to not only understand and be aware of the risks associated with connected smart devices, but also to demand that these devices be safe and secure if we are going to embrace them.