Are You Connected? CES Wants You to Be ‘On’

You and an “Internet of Things” Showcase

The International Consumer Electronics Show

All things connected including you

It’s an almost-here world of the always-on .. Are you interactive yet with the Net? Is your home getting ‘smart’? Is your car smarter? How many smart devices are in your life now? Do you know? Do you care?

LAS VEGAS (AP) — It’s not just about how many steps you’ve taken or how many calories you’ve burned in a day. Wearable fitness trackers and health monitors are becoming more commonplace and diverse, but just what do you do with all of that data?

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One in 10 Americans owns a fitness activity tracker – typically a wristband that measures things like heart rate, breathing and movement, according to the Consumer Electronics Association… The Gartner research firm estimates more than 70 million such devices were sold worldwide last year.

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Instead of showing readings on each device, the future is “where you can see how your data is connected.”

“The future is going to be one where all your information is going to be in one place,” says WebMD CEO David Schlanger.

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WHO GETS TO SEE ALL THAT DATA?

The prospect of collecting and analyzing so much personal data – especially sensitive medical records – raises a host of privacy concerns. (Associated Press)

Speaking at CES, Federal Trade Commission chief Edith Ramirez warned tech companies against selling health information to data brokers… She added a telling warning:

“In the not too distant future, many, if not most, aspects of our everyday lives will leave a digital trail. That data trove will contain a wealth of revealing information that, when patched together, will present a deeply personal and startlingly complete picture of each of us — one that includes details about our financial circumstances, our health, our religious preferences, and our family and friends…”

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How much privacy is there going to be, how much of your personal data, your ‘private’ information that you want protected, is going to be yours and only yours?

The trends of the new world are shaping up, a digiworld both promising — and overwhelming.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/technology/international-ces-the-internet-of-things-hits-homes.html

Everything is Connected

The Internet of Things is touching almost every aspect of your life…

At the Consumer Electronics Show, more than 160,000 people from more than 140 countries were presented the latest gadgets and the scope was both present and over-the-horizon…

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ces-live-updates-20150105-htmlstory.html

A comment to the LA Times story:

I hope that, with this year’s focus on the Internet of Things and wearables, you’ll pay special attention to the security and privacy ramifications of new products. As data is collected, who gets it, how will it be used, how will it be secured, who controls it?