Smart Houses: Private or Not?

In today's ever growing and technologically advancing world, odds have been highly and greatly defied. Who would say that today you could do some things from the very comfort of your home? Such as making bank transactions, purchasing and selling items, play a dual video game, communicate with someone in a distant region while getting instant reply, having meetings with persons in different locations and time zones at the same time, and a whole lot of others one can see and tell.

These advancements came by bit by bit, time after time as a result of development and the need for improvement. Advancements present today were not years back. It was possible to communicate with someone and get instant reply years back but not until some couple of years back could you hold a meeting with a group of people, all in different locations on the globe. The advancements keep advancing as well.

It's as a result of such that today we find the realities of smart houses. If I may, "smart houses are dwellings that are built and configured or automated such that the parts and devices operate upon given commands or activate upon certain triggers".

Smart houses might be the dream of almost anybody today. I mean, who wouldn't want the ease it provides? That by just a command, a light bulb turns on or off, a curtain slides open, a stereo turns on, a door and window opens, and a whole lot. How about the safety as well? That a sensor in place can detect movements and alert the users, even turn on the lights, triggers the sprinklers in case of fire outbreaks, secures a gate with lock that can't be manually opened. With these all articulated and put together, who wouldn't want that? Then the privacy too?

However, the choice of a smart house in all it's luxurious, enticing qualities and abilities can be a problem. So as the prompt says, "are smart houses really private?". Indeed, they are meant to be, nevertheless, they are not totally private.

Some years back, I watched a movie titled "Breaking In" where it featured a beautiful black American lady who was fortunate to be from a wealthy home who had a smart house. Later in life she left that house and fortunately got married, with two kids. At some point she decided to visit the house again, all together with her kids. On arriving, they had some uninvited guests. Guess who? Armed robbers! But no, they weren't normal armed robbers, considering this was a smart house. One of the builders of the house was the pioneer of the robbery. So you'll know he knew it in and out. And even as the family tried to fight for their safety, they were somehow disadvantaged due to his foreknowledge of the house system and operation.

Not to base this entire discourse on a movie that's fictional, but I consider that inherently, it's a reflection of what can be of a smart house. Turning to real analysis, data stored from such as the motion sensors and cameras and other automated systems can be accessed especially when connected with other systems that uses a third party. So, one's daily activities can be accessed.

The case of hacking can be a problem to tamper with such safety too. Hackers are getting advanced too, and a smart house configured some years back without necessary updating and strengthening can face the risk of data mining. And when the data from these systems can be accessed, privacy is null.

Smart homes are wonderful innovations and can be very private. Nevertheless, that privacy can be limited for some reasons as highlighted.

This is my entry for the #februaryinleo prompt, day 25. You can participate here.

Images are AI generated

Thank you for reading through!