All Your Devices Are Belong to Us

When I imagined the future of technology, I pictured a world where all my devices worked together seamlessly under my control. My car would never get lost in a parking lot because it could simply tell me its location. My home would intelligently manage the thermostat to save energy. The garage door would open automatically when it detected my arrival. My phone would serve as a personal assistant, coordinating everything to make each day run smoothly. At home, a central hub would connect all these devices, sharing information to optimize my life.

Yet in our current reality, these conveniences come with strings attached. It's always in the form of monthly subscriptions. When IoT first became a thing, I imagined world where users maintained complete control over their devices. Instead, your Internet connected gadget only belongs to you in name. The software and all the service it communicates with for basic operations belongs to a corporation. You only pay for limited access.

If I pay for a device and a company can remotely disable it, does it belong to me? The subscription service locks basic operation behind paywalls. The device depends on some servers I don't control to remain online for functionality. It's a privacy and security nightmare. With the IoT devices, you don't control the technology in your life.

Paying to Use What You Already Own

Purchasing a device used to mean actually owning it. Today, companies treat hardware as merely a gateway for subscription revenue. BMW installed heated seat in their car, but put it behind a $18 a month to use them. Teslas have all the full self-driving hardware in the car, but unless you shell out $99 on a monthly basis, you can't access it. With Peloton's treadmills, you've already paid $4,000 for the machine. But unless you pay for the $44 per month membership, you just own an expensive clothes rack.

Even basic home devices like smart bulbs (Philips Hue) and thermostats (Nest) require cloud accounts for full functionality. When companies eventually shut down these servers, your devices lose value. Or worse, become completely useless.

I experienced this firsthand with a Westinghouse device I purchased and forgot about for a couple years. When I finally went to use it, I discovered it had turned into a brick.

The Kill switch

Imagine a device you bought and paid for decides to shut itself down and never work again. Not because you failed to make a payment, but because the company that sold it to you decided to do so. They have the power to remotely disable your devices.

Last year, Sonos activated their "Recycle Mode" where the software intentionally bricks older speakers to force users to upgrade. Tesla remotely disabled supercharging and autopilot on what they called "salvaged" vehicles. Google bought Revolv Hub and shutdown their services, rendering the $300 devices useless.

This goes beyond planned obsolescence. They are reaching into your personal property and destroying it.

Spying on you

While I believed my devices should understand me to serve me better, today's IoT products gather excessive data while serving their manufacturers first. Smart TVs track viewing habits and share it with advertisers. Ring doorbells share footage with police without warrants. Tesla vehicles record cabin audio and video continuously, even when parked.

Opting out typically means losing core functionality. It's not your device, it's theirs. I assumed owning something meant I could open it up with a screwdriver. Now even the screws require proprietary tools. With John Deere tractors, farmers must hack their own equipment to bypass software locks. Apple actively complicate their device to prevent independent repair shops from fixing your device. HP printers block third-party ink cartridges.

If you can't maintain or repair it, did you ever really own it?

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The IoT revolution has devolved into a dystopia of subscriptions, surveillance, and corporate over-reach. In trading ownership for convenience, we've lost both. I no longer want IoT in my life, not unless I can have full, uncompromised control.

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