This is an interesting subject Howard, apart from the old joke about coming home to an automated, internet connected home and finding the fridge having an argument with the dishwasher - I have personally experienced some odd coincidences which seem to indicate that in addition to smart speakers, smart mobile phones (and possibly even less smart but internet browsing capable feature phones such as the Nokia 215) are able to listen to our conversations when switched on but not in use with no apps open or running. I recently watched a TV program about the latest Bentley Bentayga SUV (costing from £210,000) with my Nokia 215 feature 'phone sitting on the coffee table near to the TV. (It is not a smart TV nor is it connected to the internet). The next day an advert for the latest Bentley Continental, sent from a local Bentley Main Dealer, was pushed onto my laptop screen in the place where all the 'push marketing' car adverts and the like normally appear beside the newspage or main window of interets - as a reflection of my most recent browsing history - in a place where I would usually expect to see ads for more affordable Ford, Vauxhall and Renault cars that routinely appear following my browsing of those web sites. I had never visited any Bentley Motors web sites nor even read any road test reviews on Honest John etc so the advert had not been tailored by any cookies stored on my laptop. It can only have been a coincidence or my Nokia spying on me at home!


I subsequently discussed this with my Son who uses a smart phone and he has confirmed that both he and several of his friends have noticed similar 'coincidences' where they have unexpectedly received 'push marketing' ads and pop ups that relate to very specific often private conversations they have had whilst at home, about say an exotic holiday desire or similar but that they have never browsed nor googled (at least not until after receiving the pop up ad). A recent FOI submission revealed that the NEST and HIVE home automation, central heating controllers may have microphones built in 'for possible future applications' so it looks as though 'they' already know more about us than we might wish. I have now upgraded to a popular 'paid for' Anti-Virus programme to replace the popular AVAST Free AV package and this offers a very effective ad blocking feature. This ad-blocking functionality is detected by many commercial and news web sites and I now recive pop ups warning me that they have detected that I am using an ad-blocker and that I may not get the fully featured website experience and that I am also reducing their revenue earning abilities where the ads thay aprtner with largely fund the cost of their web site. So in answer to your question I would say that THE IOT IS NOT A BLESSING and needs to be managed and used with some care.

Hello Malcolm!


I'd agree that it's not a blessing, at least not in my experience - despite being a member of an institution that's dedicated to technology, I'm convinced it's the work of the devil. Within a week of taking delivery of my new phone, it knew what time I set off for work in the morning, what time I came home, where I work, the route I usually take, and what the traffic's likely to be doing. It even asked me to review a takeaway I'd  been outside for a few minutes whilst stuck in the traffic it had warned me about earlier. And as for those pop-ups... My good lady must have had an inkling what her xmas present was likely to be when an advert for a jeweller popped up on the laptop. Unfortunately the golf-ball sized diamonds in the advert were just a little out of my budget... 


And on top of that, the sat nav built into my car knew exactly where the heavy traffic was on the motorway - and very thoughtfully diverted me into the centre of Manchester to avoid it.


George Orwell would turn in his grave. Big brother isn't just watching us, he's hiding in our washing machines sending messages to our phones telling us the spin cycle's finished.

What george Orwell wouldn't have predicted is that people would voluntarily bring all those monitoring devices into their own homes, or walk around being tracked by them every day.