Have Privacy Concerns Caused You to Avoid Smart Home Purchases? [Poll]
Once you start investing in smart home products, you might find yourself wondering why you hadn’t started sooner. While some people put off smart home purchases due to cost, others avoid them because of privacy concerns.
Are Smart Devices Always Listening?
When Echo smart speakers grew in popularity, many were curiouswhether Amazon’s Alexa was spying on people. Put simply, Alexa listens for its wake word so it can answer questions or complete commands when you need assistance. Alexa, and other virtual assistants, are not constantly listening to or recording you and others in your home.
There are times when a smart speaker will inaccurately hear a wake word and start recording or ask what you need, but these instances are rare. In fact, there’s a greater chance thatyour smartphone is listening to you, rather than certain smart devices within your home.
Regardless, are privacy concerns worth giving up all the benefits of smart home purchases?
Do the Pros of Smart Devices Outweigh the Cons?
When you findreputable smart home brands with products you’re able to trust, the process of building a smart home becomes much simpler. Trusting a brand makes it easy to expand your smart home because when it’s time for a new product, you know exactly which company you’re buying from.
It can be good to mix and match, especially in the beginning to find out which brands are your favorites. But once you start investing inessential smart home products, you’ll see how much they improve your quality of life.
Smart bulbs can be set to a routine to help you wake up and go to sleep. A smart coffee maker can have a fresh pot ready to go when you come downstairs before work. Smart sensors and a smart thermostat can automatically lower and raise your home’s temperature to save on energy and money. The possibilities are endless—and so worth it!
Are You Avoiding a Smart Home Due to Privacy Concerns?
If you have a smartphone—and most of us do—there’s no greater privacy risk to owning a smart speaker, coffee maker, or light bulb than there is in your own cell phone. Depending on which brand you go with and how easily hackable it is, there may be more risk in installing a smart lock or security system, but it’s minimal compared to the quality of life improvements they bring.
Do you think smart home privacy concerns have caused you to hold back on smart home purchases? For me, I avoided investing in smart home devices simply out of complacency and not wanting to work on learning something new. If there’s another reason you avoided smart home purchases, let us know in the comments!
Have privacy concerns caused you to avoid smart home purchases?
Not everything in your house needs to be smart. These are the devices we think are worth your time and those you should skip.
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