In George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984, the government spies on society in a number of ways, including technology, specifically the omnipresent two-way telescreens. Even though not all social classes endure the same level of surveillance, privacy is pretty much an extinct idea.

Freedom is slavery, truth is lies, love is hate, Miley Cyrus is classy

In a decidedly more low-brow work, the awful horror movie Maximum Overdrive deals with cars and trucks that acquire sentience and go on a murderous rampage against society. The machines have turned against humanity.

The bottom line here seems to be that technology can’t be trusted, and machines are jerks. But these are just works of fiction, right? Machines really can’t rat us out, right? Introducing the Internet of Things. Read on, and be amazed, and perhaps just a little scared.

What’s The Internet Of Things?

The Internet of Things, or IoT for short, is a concept where things, defined as people, animals, and objects, are each provided with a unique identifier that transfers data over a network without people having to intervene at all. As long as the thing in question can access the Internet and retain its own IP address, it’s part of the Internet of Things network.

Through this arrangement, life theoretically becomes easier, since people can now access things like their home security systems, door locks, pet information, and countless other pieces of data, instantly via their mobile devices.

Although this sounds pretty nifty and kind of in the realm of awesome science fiction, two big issues loom ominously: security and privacy.

Security

At the exact moment of this writing, it’s been reported that hackers have stolen around 200,000 images and videos from SnapChat and are threatening to release them to the public. This follows closely in the wake of the infamous release of celebrity pictures and videos back in August.

This shows that there currently is no such thing as a completely safe data storage network. Naked pictures and videos of celebrities getting stolen are one thing; now imagine all of your household, vehicle, and family-related data at the mercy of hackers. Everything from your front door locks to your car’s ignition system, to your smart phones; all of it, laid bare by unscrupulous sociopaths. Chilling, isn’t it?

And that’s just the network end of things. How about the actual physical devices that connect objects to this network? Can these transmitters, RFID tags, transponders, and whatever else, be physically tampered with by these people? If so, could hackers then hijack your devices?

Usually the government gets involved in matters like this, passing regulations and laws that can control what can and can’t be transmitted and accessed. But given the recent issues with the National Security Agency spying on American citizens, the confidence level of the average person in the Federal government’s respect for privacy may be diminished somewhat for the near future.

Privacy

Speaking of privacy, we come to the second big concern. Imagine, if you will, your car, house, Hell even your toaster oven, equipped with RFID tags and beaming information to numerous data collection sources. For example, if you live somewhere that has annual vehicle inspections, how about the idea of a sensor in your car beaming information to the DMV that your tire treads are too worn, or that the emissions exceed levels mandated by law? Forget the idea of waiting until it’s time for the annual inspection: the DMV knows about it RIGHT NOW and is giving you 30 days to rectify it, or the car’s registration will be suspended.

Or maybe that smart watch of yours that keeps track of how many miles you run eventually beams a notice to various footwear sellers when you’ve hit a certain mileage milestone, thereby triggering a series of running shoe ads to your laptop or smart phone?

Perhaps you have your home theater all interconnected in an arrangement similar to the one mentioned in the article “The Internet of Things For Your Home Theater.” Will your viewing information be automatically transmitted without your say-so to some marketing database? Do you really want someone knowing everything you watch?

And there are more questions as well. Where’s all this data going? Who can access it? What will it be used for? Convenience is good, sure, but what’s the price of it?

But Wait, There’s More

The article “New Security Challenges Accompanying the Internet of Things” details a few other concerns to keep in mind. But even with all of these cautionary tales, it needs to be remembered that it’s quite possible that the Internet of Things can work smoothly and without major intrusions of privacy. Like with any new technology, however, there will be missteps and mistakes. Best prepare for it.