Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse

139 点作者 xbryanx将近 7 年前

15 条评论

Perhaps its time to take a cue from industry and add a mandatory e-stop button to these things.In this case an "i-stop". A local press of this little red button (with a standard, well recognized symbol) disables all remote network features of a device, rendering it dumb again.This button must be out-of-band. It physically disables networking hardware so a software hack to backdoor around it is impossible.IOT goes haywire? Just hit the i-stop.

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fake-name将近 7 年前

I've said this before on other topics (new social network projects).If you don't consider how your internet-thingie-service will handle/moderate abuse from the outset, your planning is fundamentally broken, and you will effectively be enabling abusers and harassers.Proper security can often not be bolted onto products like this after-the-fact. Trying to ship a "minimum viable product" in the hardware space is extremely irresponsible, particularly if (like many IoT things) you have no facility for updating devices remotely.

GabeWeiss_将近 7 年前

Please please, if you have a partner installing these things in your home, have them show you:1) How they installed it 2) Where the product's support is, and how to contact them 3) How to uninstall/remove/destroy it (also useful if the robot overlords take over the world)

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jumper_F00BA2将近 7 年前

Ah, come on. It's time to get real about all the Spencer Gifts level of bells and whistles added to all this technical garbage, as a convenience upsell.Luxury items are exactly that. A luxury. When everything is perfect, a luxury is wonderful.But luxuries are suicidal to retain, in a crisis scenario.The problem with the mindset of staple-gunning Specer Gifts luxury mode convenience onto practicalities of critical infrastructure, is that you wind up with a UV flourescent black light fire extinguisher. Which is awesome, if you're playing lazer tag in a party time glow-bowl bowling alley, while listening to Laser Floyd's Wall at the planetarium. But we're selling radical day glow fire extinguishers to regular people, for daily use, in the home, to Kmart shoppers.This shit has nothing to do with domestic violence. It has to do with priorities, and graceful degradation. None of these special smartphone app convenience bonuses degrade gracefully, so that the core functionality may be retained, while stripping out the extra technical fluff of packet switched, TCP/IP, GSM 4G LTE, broadband wi-fi global availability, so that you can bounce your playlist off a router attached to satelite phone at a sub-station in antarctica for two factor authentication, because the QT library for the UI had a bug forcing you to turn it off and then back on again, so you can log back in, and change the channel on your smart TV with your phone without having to get up from the couch to find the remote control, because blu ray disks won't let you use the play button to watch the movie, and only the remote has the OK/enter button, and none of the buttons on the set-top-box player will start the movie.

WiseWeasel将近 7 年前

It would seem prudent for devices that include WAN remote management features to include some kind of prominent 'manual/local mode' switch to silently disable remote management where practical, for cases where victims might face retribution for disabling it, or simply if an account has been compromised.

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rainbowmverse将近 7 年前

Abuse survivors/advocates have been warning about this for years. I'm glad it's going mainstream so the people who make them will hear and think about how to make them less dangerous.

ocdtrekkie将近 7 年前

My opinion on this remains chiefly that IoT devices like any other powerful tool can be used for good or evil. This weekend, I set automation up for my grandma to help her remain living independently longer.My smart home software is currently single user in design, but I'd likely have to make changes when I share my home. But chiefly, I don't believe in abusing power technology grants me: If there was a separation, I'd sever any control of devices that they kept and make sure they were able to get into them.At the end of the day, the solution to technology being used by domestic abusers is to get rid of the domestic abusers.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC将近 7 年前

Unfortunately, a lot of what our tech can be used to abuse or dominate others. This article mentioned "smart" thermostats, locks, and lights. Another tech is cell phones. Cell phones have information about where a person is, and even, with some apps, what audio is in the environment. Unfortunately, all mainstream security models assume physical security. When that assumption is violated, all our security and encryption falls flat.

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jedberg将近 7 年前

Sadly, much like everything else connected to the internet, the problems aren't new, just the scale and efficiency. :(

rdiddly将近 7 年前

The attack surface was always the biggest reason not to install IoT crap, but it's 10 times worse when the adversary isn't just someone random trying his luck from a faraway locale, but rather someone who has or used to have physical access, ownership, the admin password etc and is specifically targeting you.

dredmorbius将近 7 年前

NB: Light discussion a few days back, and multiple submissions, but well-worth considering.<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382829" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17382829</a><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Thermostats%2C%20Locks%20and%20Lights%3A%20Digital%20Tools%20of%20Domestic%20Abuse&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Thermostats%2C%20Locks%20and%2...</a>

dredmorbius将近 7 年前

A notion I'm thinking over is the root meanings of near and far, and the implications of mediated experience.Near is a cognate of nigh, whose superlative is next: "The Old English progression was neah - near - niehsta, for "nigh - near - next." Things which are near share borders, or cross few borders. Or, from close, are confined within a common border or boundary.<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/near" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/near</a><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigh" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigh</a><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/close" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/close</a>Conversely, far comes from the PIE root * per-, "base of words for 'through, forward,' with extended senses such as 'across, beyond'".To be distant is to stand apart, to be unconnected or not directly connected. To be distant is to move bacck or push away.<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/far" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/far</a><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/distant" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/distant</a><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/remote" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/remote</a>PIE roots are fun for all the derived words they point to -- they're the superhubs of language:<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/*per-" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/*per-</a>Media, from medium, is that which stands between: "intermediate agency" Or, from the above, media is the agent of distance.<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/medium" rel="nofollow">https://www.etymonline.com/word/medium</a>I'm reading through a collection of Greek and Roman myths (H.A. Grueber, 1907), and it comes to mind that the Greek god of messengers -- that is, of intermediate agency, media, distance -- was also a the trickster god: Hermes (Mercury).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes</a>Which brings us back to the Times piece, and the subject of which maany of us form our livelihoods.Digital gadgets give the illusion of immediateness, nearness, and simplicity, but in truth they are too often complex, rely on remote capabilities, and may respond to many masters.Drawing in one more allusion, driving victims mad by regulating environmental ssystems was a key plot device of R.A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress</a>

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basicplus2将近 7 年前

This is an easy one.. all such products should have a manual 3 position switch with off-Auto-On/manual

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internetman55将近 7 年前

Sigh, wish we could do better as humans

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lkrubner将近 7 年前

Why was the comment by GabeWeiss_ made "dead"? It's not an entirely unreasonable thing to say, in the context of domestic abuse.

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15 条评论

noonespecial将近 7 年前

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fake-name将近 7 年前

GabeWeiss_将近 7 年前

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jumper_F00BA2将近 7 年前

WiseWeasel将近 7 年前

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rainbowmverse将近 7 年前

Abuse survivors/advocates have been warning about this for years. I'm glad it's going mainstream so the people who make them will hear and think about how to make them less dangerous.

ocdtrekkie将近 7 年前

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RcouF1uZ4gsC将近 7 年前

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jedberg将近 7 年前

Sadly, much like everything else connected to the internet, the problems aren't new, just the scale and efficiency. :(

rdiddly将近 7 年前

dredmorbius将近 7 年前

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basicplus2将近 7 年前

This is an easy one.. all such products should have a manual 3 position switch with off-Auto-On/manual

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internetman55将近 7 年前

Sigh, wish we could do better as humans

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lkrubner将近 7 年前

Why was the comment by GabeWeiss_ made "dead"? It's not an entirely unreasonable thing to say, in the context of domestic abuse.

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