Stop scaring yourself

I love home automation. Smart home technology can be cool, practical and could even save you money in the long run. But there is one troubling trend, that permeates the whole community, from entry level Homekit users to people who run their whole setup through Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pie: Surveillance. Cameras have become a smart home staple, notifications if a door opens and closes are commonplace and all of this needs to stop.

I’m not talking about the video doorbell that helps you decide if you should actually leave your couch or play dead, I’m talking about all the other stuff that tries to sell you security. Door sensors make sense if you need to know that you didn’t forget to close your garage door or windows. But the constant logging of events will not prevent any harm. It will however will allow your abusive partner to track and spy on you. That is not an abstract threat but something that will happen – and there kinds of relationships could happen to anyone.

The same goes for Cameras. Cameras don’t stop burglaries, because a simple balaclava will conceal most thieves more than enough. It might help the police catch them later but to be honest, a simple break-in rarely warrants enough attention from the authorities to start a manhunt. They also have the same potential for abuse as the door sensors.

But even if you think this is a risk worth taking, it does something to your psyche. Statistically speaking you, the person reading this right now, are safe from outside threats. You will not be the victim of a violent crime perpetrated by a stranger in your own home. If you fall victim to a burglary it happened more than likely while you were away from home and the cameras don’t help you in that case. You will not see the notification fast enough to call the police and have them arrive in time. Also the likelihood of being robbed is small in the first place.

What does happen is that you start thinking about your personal safety. That you need to protect yourself from outside forces. That the world you are living in more dangerous than it actually is. And that will have a larger impact on your life than having bad luck and your Playstation stolen. More surveillance isn’t the answer to societies problems. And it won’t help against the only real threat that a lot people face in their daily lives: Abusive partners or relatives.

Fear is a feeling that makes it easy for companies to sell you things. Don’t fall for it.