Is that really happening? In what circumstances? All this monitoring freaks me out and I refuse to take part in it!

This sort of thing is innevitable, I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it. All they have to do is pitch it, like they seem to be doing, as a new way to track weather and other mundane things and people likely won't consider that their every move is now being watched.

Alright then, what should the average person do to be proactive about combating this sort of thing? I seriously doubt calling or writing to my governor or senator is going to do shit.

I envy your optimism, at least on this front, in other areas I'm much less pessimistic and more proactive.

No, of course not. I just don't know what can realistically be done to stop it. The world is becoming increasingly connected, and with all the benefit that brings, our privacy is being eroded as a consequence. I try to be realistic about these things but it doesn't mean I like them.

I try to minimize the amount of smart shit in my house.

I have told my wife very persuasively to keep her phone in the hall room , and don't bring phones in the bedroom, I keep my phone usually at the entrance on a drawer.

Smart Telescreens are not welcome in my bedroom, that is private space.

It depends how it's used. I am not against the DIY culture, a lot of things can be done through them, but just keep them in a separate work room, don't bring any smart shit in the bedroom, that should be private space.

My wife likes to video chat a lot with her friends, but she is just doing that in the living room, not the bedroom.

As someone who is an Arduino and IoT enthusiast, not really. The biggest thing spying on people is their cellphone. If you want to demystify IoT you need to get into it. Buy yourself an Arduino and write your first sketch.

Or your first worm? The IoT is filling the web with small, unprotected devices that'll never get security patches. Good luck there.

Why don't you give me an example?

How about most every Raspberry Pi out there still being set to default login details for a start?

Mine isn't set to default. The first thing I do is add my account/change passwords. Also, most people aren't doing anything sensitive enough for anyone to care. It's not like people buy Ras Pi's for banking.

It was an example. You may have secured yours, but I know for a fact they're an easy and popular target.

Also, you may not be doing banking on your Pi, but you may be banking on the same network as a jackpotted Pi, which could be a serious issue. Like I say, this is a single example.

Shodan changed everything, didn't it?

You're like a meme, 'drugs are bad, mmm, kay'. I'm not even sure you're serious

It sounds as if you want to live in a world with no wireless communication, no cellphones, no wifi connected devices. Are you one of those RF sensitive people? What do you do that commands so much privacy and why don't you think these technologies are so incredibly useful that it's worth the risk? That's what I tend to think, the benefit far outweighs the risk.

I think technology is the one and only thing that will ensure the human race can live forever. Technological progress should be the human races #1 goal. Jmo.

There's just certain things you have to take into account- don't sell drugs on your freaking cellphone. Don't talk about that dude you murdered. Don't take pictures of your illegal activities. Pretty simple, easy to follow ruleset for people who actually have a reason to distrust digital devices. No one is interested in spying on regular people- they might want your credit card information, but they could probably care less what you sound like when you're making sweat love to your significant other or what you look like naked.

With regard to financial fraud, the banks are incredibly good at catching it, and either reversing or erasing the charges. There's really very little for the average joe to fear from IoT. It's the big companies doing big research with intellectual property that have something to fear from IoT, and I couldn't care any less about them.

Yes the smart phone is 1 gadget, then there are smart appliances now , TV, washing machine ,etc...

And it goes down to the minutia like detachable optical sensors and whatnot that can be inter-plugged in into most of them and cross compatible.

It could be useful to some degree,but I think everyone should have a "safe space" in their home that is tech free, where they can enjoy their privacy, usually the bedroom.

Yeah but there are these cameras that you can install to them and sensors and whatnot gadgets. Hackers could hack those, and spy on people's homes.

There was an instance where somebody ran a cryptocurrency node on one of those chips and it got hacked, so it's not far fetched.

There's going to be cameras that are the size of a grain of salt, powered by the very light they take in, and paired with wireless transmitters equally as small. This is not really a threat to us- it's a massive threat to the government and especially corrupt politicians. Eventually, everything will have eyes and ears. Only the people that know how to use will be using it, however, so there's that.

Smart Dust Is Coming: New Camera Is the Size of a Grain of Salt

Imagine what this will do to things like pedophile rings. It will decimate them.

couldn't you just disconnect wifi and mobile data?

No the wifi is unfortunately always on, thanks to the ISP's policy, they have installed a wireless router that is always on, so there is always wireless connection in the house and there is no way to turn that off without turning off the entire internet. Which is a serious problem because if any IoT wifi-capable device is in the house it can just send out data covertly through that router.

Mobile phones don't shut down anymore after you turn them off, the snowden docs revealed that they are always on until they run out of power.

New smartphones don't even have removable batteries, so it could be always listening.

So you have a permenent internet cloud around the house, and surveillance devices that don't power off and can connect to the internet wirelessly.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

https://youtu.be/N_yANDUFbgM this an older post that didn't get much attention but might shed some light on the scope of these operations.

OP what you suggest we do?