Off The Grid

Why Is ‘Off The Grid’ Living Becoming So Popular?

Now more than ever the world’s society is tackling the issue of intrusive governments and aggressive “ tracking ” by advertisement companies. Every day in the news, there is an opinion article questioning the limits that governments should have in regard to monitoring the daily activity of its citizens. Fortune 100 companies are also being questioned regarding their ad tactics. With that said, I have noticed people going to two extremes—people not caring and people obsessed with being off the grid.

This is certainly one of the major issues of our time. With most adults having read George Orwell’s “ 1984 ”, the fear of “ big brother ” seems more real than ever. With companies like Google fighting to learn more and more about its users in order to more accurately reach advertisers’ targets. As many of you may have read, Google recently purchased the company Nest for 3.2 Billion (Billion with a B). Nest is a manufacturer of smart thermostats and unmonitored smoke detectors. Initially, it was surprising to see Google enter the hardware and retail space. I asked myself, why is Google getting into the home automation space ? I would be lying if there was not a little concern over competing against Google and their massive war chest. However, as I did more research it became clearer that Google was not interested in retail sales, it wants information .

Google wants to know when you are walking past your thermostat (it has a motion detector), it wants to know when you are leaving your home, and when you are going to bed. By aggregating all of this data, Google can offer its advertisers real time information on homeowners ’ daily routines and habits. With that in mind, the 3.2 Billion dollar purchase price for Nest might be appropriate.

However, how does the consumer feel about this? For those that are uncomfortable by having their daily habits recorded by a third party , they are choosing to turn off the data reporting on their thermostats (I am told there is a way to do that).

So I leave you with the question—in 2014, what is invasive? We now share our lives through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Is having our web activity tracked or our movements tracked different than posting a picture of your morning coffee?

Personally, I would rather go “ off the grid ” than have my activity monitored. On the other hand, I find myself not caring enough to learn how to actually do that. If you have any comments or suggestions on how to increase privacy on the web and in daily routines, please feel free to let us know at ATP Alarms!

The post Off The Grid appeared first on ATP Alarms.

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