How to Plan Your Smart Home - and Weigh Privacy Risks
NEW YORK (AP) — You might have heard of lights that turn off with an app or voice command. Or window shades that magically rise every morning.
Technology companies are pushing the "smart home" hard, selling appliances and gadgets that offer internet-connected conveniences you didn't know you needed. But before you succumb to the temptation — for yourself or others — consider that these devices might also give companies and hackers a key to your homes.
Here's how to get started on your smart home and what to worry about along the way.
STARTING THAT SMART HOME
A smart home can encompass features as simple as remote-controlled lamps and as sophisticated as thermostats that know when you're home and turn up the heat automatically. Down the line, you may want to mix and match these tasks into routines, such as a wake-up ritual that automatically starts the coffee maker, lifts the window shades and plays the news.
With the right tools, you can check remotely whether you remembered to lock the doors — and lock them if you forgot. Some systems can also create temporary digital keys for guests and contractors.
Many people start thinking about a smart home when they get a voiceactivated speaker such as Amazon's Echo or Google Home, although such gadgets aren't strictly necessary. Nor do you even need actual smart lights and appliances, as you can buy smart plugs, adapters that control existing lights or whatever you plug into them.
If you catch the smart-home bug, you can add appliances with the smarts already built in as you replace your existing ones. Major remodels also offer an opportunity to make bigger smart-home plans. You probably wouldn't want to get new window shades now only to replace them with smart ones a year later.
THE RISKS
There are some concerns to keep in mind. Many devices are constantly listening for commands and connect to corporate servers to carry them out. Not everyone is going to be comfortable with live microphones in their homes (though your phone may already be doing the same thing, if you had enabled assistive features such as "Hey Siri" and "OK Google").
For the most part, recordings will leave home only when you trigger the device, such as by speaking a command phrase like "OK Google" or pressing a button to get the device's attention. But an Amazon device mistakenly recorded and sent a family's private conversation to an acquaintance after the device mistakenly thought it heard the trigger word followed by a "send message" request.
Check what safeguards a device offers before buy-