Quote:
Originally Posted by pholy
But not inevitable. I don't have to buy the toaster or fridge with the network connection. I don't have to open my firewall to any device within my home. I will find a way to disable any wireless connection (except, perhaps my cellphone) that tries to bypass my firewall.
In a democracy, we have (in theory) the ability to pass laws to force manufacturers to allow us control over the devices we buy. Don't we?
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Only to an extent. Obviously, where safety is a concern, consumers are generally forbidden to alter some devices (you're not allowed to disable the seatbelts in your car, to reconfigure a radio to transmit over private radio bands, to rewire your house and ignore established safety codes, etc). Safety probably won't be a concern in the case of a lot of home products, but things like plug-in electrical devices (which can cause electrocution and fires) could conceivably come under a "no tampering" law. And if the government decides some of those safety items must communicate with outside institutions, it could become illegal to tamper with your own firewall to prevent it!
Hopefully, there will continue to be products available that will not have network connections. But we can't assume even that, if the companies believe the IP connections do more good than harm, and if they can convince most customers to buy them under the idea of getting this perk or that. Such companies could lobby the government to expand "no tampering" to all of their products, and we know from past history that that is entirely possible. (Another reason we need to break the lobbying stranglehold over our government officials.)
So, the sad news is that we may have little choice in the matter in the long run... that's a worst-case scenario. At the very least, we'll probably have to accept IP communications in some devices but not in others.