Smart Home Technology 101: Safety and Ethics
Home builders are thinking about incorporating more smart home technology into new homes as an option and mainstay. Recent The New York Times publications bring up questions about the responsibility and ethics surrounding this technology. One article describes partners who would use smart home devices as a way of abusing people: cranking up the radiator, switching passwords to locks and pumping the music up at ungodly times.

The Lack of Safety Nets
“We obviously need to do some work on this,” says one home expert at the forefront of consumers preferences and trends. He was astounded by the utter lack of any comprehensive fix for hindering users or adjusting settings. Journeys End Homes, a Utah home builder, are dedicating themselves to associating with integrators and suppliers who install necessary safeguards that buyers can understand.

“I’m not your typical user,” one Utah home builder reveals, yet also speaking from past understandings: “I had a bad breakup and hurriedly secured my home. This is generally a lot of trouble for people. It is a technology that enables, but this just means users must be more involved.”

How to Stop Home Infiltrators
Potential abusers can take control of many areas of a target’s life with smart technology. “An ethical responsibility is growing to make sure the technology doesn’t rest in the hands of a single person,” mentions a tech ethicist and lawyer in New York, David Ryan Polgar.

Educating buyers around the use of common sense principles, similar to how Journeys End Homes does it and is done with banking or car keys, is crucial. A Utah custom home builder might mention how security breaches are becoming a blame game. User vigilance is something that’s highly emphasized. Recording your passwords can be cumbersome, but applications like OnePass and LastPass provide an encrypted vault to store usernames and passwords. This provides for simple reference and fast changes.

Owning a smart home is similar to owning an appliance, so homeowners need the best guidance on responsible and secure use. Contact us to find out more about how we at Journeys End Homes take the greatest amount of precaution on installing devices in new homes.