Smart-home devices now create immense knowledge stores with unowned power

Evidence

By 2018, the global “smart-home” market was valued at 36 billion and expected to reach 151 billion by 2023. … As a result of the merger with Google, the thermostat, like other Nest products, will be built with Google’s artificial intelligence capabilities, including its personal digital “assistant.” Like the Aware Home, the thermostat and its brethren devices create immense new stores of knowledge and therefore new power—but for whom? — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 31

Categorization

• XREF: Directly answers the questioning of paragraphs 29-30; the ‘but for whom?’ pivot is the book’s central question crystallized. — connects to: Smart-home device spending is exploding alongside surveillance capability — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 749; Smart-home IoT devices enroll consumers in surveillance-based markets without knowledge or consent — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 751; Smart home devices claim a limitless scope of domestic activities for rendition — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 814 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Home-device privacy policies extract biometric and audio data from entire households #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 741
• Digital platforms hijack life into data whose insights are sold back to us #complicates (0.70)