Microsoft joins Qualcomm's gang in Internet of Stuff standards fight Microsoft has joined a standards-setting consortium of 50 companies that is hoping to be instrumental in setting up interoperability for the Internet of Things. The software giant has signed up to the Allseen Alliance, which also counts companies like Qualcomm, LG, Cisco and Symantec among its members. The group is trying to …
Then where would the spooks' back door go? Gotta imagine they're salivating at the idea of every device in your home being remotely accessible and rootable, if you know the correct magic words to say to it. How long til that smart TV with integrated webcam for Skype calls becomes eerily similar to a Telescreen?
So, we got MS and a handful of others setting standards, writing code, so expect buffer overflow and denial of service attacks, and then we have have Google and Apple, which is going to sell any and all information they can obtain. Before it's over Facebook and twitter will be in there somehow wanting your frig to friend you or send a message stating the milk has gone bad for your local supermarket (Walmart anyone?) to spam the hell out of the Gmail account stating they have milk on sale....
Yeah, cynical but.....it could happen.
Whoever wins the standards war of getting their IoT approved as the one true ISO, surely a good place to start is to use the EAN for device identification. Not only does your fridge have a have an EAN of its own but all the products inside it also have one assigned. Switches an bulbs also have EANs so software can check that it is really switching off a bulb and not defrosting all your perishables.
I can guess that the only major problem with it is, that if you inadvertantly buy brand Y instead of your usual brand X, the fridge will continue to tell tell you that you are out of both.
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