The Ridiculous Possibilities of a Connected Home
Engadget stopped by the #HelloSmartHome at this year’s CES to see how SmartThings Labs is propelling the connected home to a whole new level. Look for some cool and useful integrations with Sonos, Belkin WeMo, and Philips hue, as well as a few yet-to-be-released integrations with great brands like Jawbone, August, and Ubi.
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I would wonder, with the NSA and other powerful agencies compelling companies to turn over any and all intel on everyone, what assurances you would give concerning why I would want to totally wire my house, 1984 style, so that everyone can monitor everything me and my family is doing on a micro level? Don’t get me wrong, this is really cool, but I am not sure I want to open myself to this kind of monitoring. Any thoughts? I would really like to consider this, but there is no way to make sure this doesn’t happen. Help me out here.
Hey, Tim. A really good, really important question. We take all users’ personal information and privacy extremely seriously and invite everyone to read the sections on user submissions in our terms of service and personally identifiable information in our privacy policy. The core section in the Privacy policy that speaks to your question is this:
Will SmartThings share any of the personal information it receives?
We neither rent nor sell your Personal Information in personally identifiable form to anyone. However, we do share your Personal Information with third parties as described in this section:
“Aggregated Personal Information that’s no longer personally identifiable. We may anonymize your Personal Information so that you cannot be individually identified, and provide that information to our partners. We may also provide aggregate information to our partners, who may use such information to understand how often and in what ways people use our Services. However, except as described below, we never disclose aggregate information to a partner in a manner that would identify you personally, as an individual.”
What is SmartThings policy concerning law enforcement agencies?
We will proactively work to protect your personal information consistent with the terms in our service documents, but obviously adhere to the law. Since every situation is unique, it is impossible to comment on our legal obligations to disclose information.
Hope this helps some.