The Internet Of Things Is Becoming More Difficult To Escape (npr.org)

An anonymous reader writes: After a long day, many of us try to set down our technology and unplug from the world around us. But, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center, over the next few years, that will become much more difficult to do. The Internet of things will continue to spread between now and 2026, until human and machine connectivity becomes ubiquitous and unavoidably present, according to experts who participated in what Pew described as a "nonscientific canvassing." About 1,200 participants were asked: "As automobiles, medical devices, smart TVs, manufacturing equipment and other tools and infrastructure are networked, is it likely that attacks, hacks or ransomware concerns in the next decade will cause significant numbers of people to decide to disconnect, or will the trend toward greater connectivity of objects and people continue unabated?" The answers they gave were telling: 15 percent said significant numbers of people would disconnect while 85 percent said most people would just move more deeply into connected life. Unplugging is futile, and plugging in is unavoidable. It's already difficult to create distance from the technology that surrounds us, but as connectivity increases, it might become impossible to do so.

Comments

Re:The Paranoid Path

[PolygamousRanchKid]

If you break open an LED bulb you might find a small black chip wired to the power lines, and it might have printed on it: "NSA PoE: You No Touch!" If you do, and it does, you are being spied on. The LED bulb has a camera with sends 64K resolution films to the NSA using their own super-secret proprietary Power Over Ethernet back all the way to their secret headquarters, which is NOT that big black glass building in the mall parking lot.

Oh, if it doesn't have the chip, the LED bulb was OK, but you can't use it anymore, since you broke open. That is an additional counter-intelligence measure . . . and . . .