Intranet of Things

A different approach to Smart Home

During the last years, a completely new part of computer science was created, which provides many possibilities and is watched by both individuals, as well as huge companies like Google, Amazon and Apple. I'm talking about the so-called Internet of Things, which - mostly called smart-home and wearables - slowly finds it's way to consumer homes. While the smart-home provides a lot of possible use cases, the most prominent ones are mostly centred around the automated control of house appliances like light and heating, as well as the possibility to get more information about there usage to reduce costs. But unlike most companies want to make use believe there are also problems.

Data protection

One of the biggest problems with many commercial smart-home products is the missing or not guaranteed data protection. Most smart-home devices collect a huge amount of data about there users, which can result in a lot of damage when they get in the wrong hands. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to give a company that gets most of its money from ad revenue that much information about yourself. Although some providers state not to store profiles and usage data about their users, no one can really check if this is correct.

Security

Another problem is security. Although big companies would have the resources to correct errors in their products, security often is not a top priority. In addition to this many of the companies now trying to shape the smart-home never had the chance to gain experience with internet connected devices. This results in security vulnerabilities being found all the time.

The problem with clouds

A lot of smart-home devices rely on services provided by the cloud and thus require a constant internet connection. This is a problem, as providers are not bound to keep their cloud services online and they might choose to shut them down at any time. They already did and if they do your cool new devices will suddenly be less useful than a brick. I doubt one should require a cloud to turn on a light across the room. And just ask yourself what happens when the internet is unavailable.

Intranet and not Internet

Similar to the Internet of Things one of the targets is to improve comfort and automate things. However, with the Intranet of Things, the priorities are different. Unlike the Internet of Things where the competition is focused about the number of features available and thus the amount of users, the Intranet cares more about data protection, security and longevity. A device should only transmit data to its producer if it is an absolute necessity for correct function. In addition, it must be possible to have a modern smart-home without requiring an internet connection. Every service required for basic operation should be able to run on a local network. Most of the functionally should still work without an internet connection.