
Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse - f3f3_
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/technology/smart-home-devices-domestic-abuse.html
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donutte
I think about this sometimes.

I put together my own IoT infrastructure in our apartment. I did everything by
hand: I wrote the embedded code, I wrote the server code, I pieced together
the hub with a router and RasPi I had lying around. I spliced cheap WiFi
relays into our IKEA lamps— and just to keep things simple, I also removed the
original hardware switches.

The upshot is we have this nice web-accessible home automation system for a
total parts outlay of probably under $100. It works really well! (As long as
the Let’s Encrypt cron job is set up properly...) And most importantly, I know
that _I_ own it.

The thing about that is... _I_ own it. I’m the only one in the world who
understands how it works. I’m the only one who can fix it if it breaks. But I
don’t live alone. If I pack up and leave, my partners aren’t going to be able
to _turn the lights on_ without going out to buy brand new lights.

And wow, that’s a huge amount of trust to put in me! Of course my partners do
trust me that much, but it’s striking that I didn’t take that into
consideration _at all_ when I started the project.

~~~
pasbesoin
I appreciate that your abilities in this are beyond my own.

I think what is absent in your cost description is the value of them.

And in the commercial world, we seem to have products that ameliorate that
cost in part through the state of their security. Whether neglectful, or
deliberate (e.g. the whole "advertising model" with respect to much Web
content). I don't know enough to describe how this works in the
hardware/firmware world, but I suspect nonetheless that it's a factor.

I'm not saying anything novel, here, except that often we leave the cost of
expertise out of our pricing and expectations.

Whether our own, or paying for someone else's.

And... marketing too often attempts to substitute image for reality. High
prices, with just a showman behind the curtain.

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Rjevski
> Those at help lines said more people were calling in the last 12 months
> about losing control of Wi-Fi-enabled doors, speakers, thermostats, lights
> and cameras

What happened to the good old thing called "physical access"? Press the reset
button, unplug the thing, remove its battery or even drop it into a bucket of
water. Problem solved.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
> When a victim uninstalls the devices, this can escalate a conflict, experts
> said. “The abuser can see it’s disabled, and that may trigger enhanced
> violence,” said Jennifer Becker, a lawyer at Legal Momentum, a women’s
> rights legal advocacy group.

~~~
Caprinicus
If I hit someone repeatedly with their toaster, and they uninstall the
toaster, so I beat them with their frying pan, the fact that they owned a
toaster isn’t very relevant in the situation, the hitting is

~~~
0xcde4c3db
You're missing the escalation aspect. The risk is that the abuser starts
hitting harder or switches to a deadly weapon like a gun or knife.

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21
A funny related comic:
[https://mrcihandemir.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/wp-14894873...](https://mrcihandemir.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/wp-1489487375991.jpg)

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onetimemanytime
This is actually brilliant from an abusers POV: "hey, it's my house, I like
this music, or want to turn x off and y on." Or just did it to test how it
works. Meanwhile the partner goes literally nuts.

