The week my smart thermostat snitched on my vacation plans

Last year my family drove to Myrtle Beach for a week in July. I thought I had done everything right - turned off location tracking, cleared my browser history, even used cash for gas. But my Nest thermostat was still connected to wifi and talking to the cloud every day. While I was 500 miles away eating shrimp, that thing was sending temperature data to Google showing the house was empty. I found out when a neighbor called saying a van from a security company was parked out front. Someone had scraped my serial number off the app and knew exactly when I was gone. Now I unplug every smart device before I leave town. Has anyone else had a home gadget give away your schedule without you knowing?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.nina27d ago

Read a story about a woman whose Ring doorbell got hacked and the guy talked to her kids through it. That's nightmare fuel right there. Never thought about thermostats being a problem until now, makes total sense they'd be the perfect clue for burglars. Got me rethinking all those "smart" purchases I made last year during those Christmas sales.

markhall27d ago

Smart home stuff has turned us all into beta testers for security problems nobody thought through.