How a smart home device turned family life into a home horror movie - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
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How a smart home device turned family life into a home horror movie

The technology, which at first seemed like a blessing to the American family man, eventually turned his life into a “homemade horror film”.

Photo: YouTube / CNET video frame

In May 2017, journalist Evan McGarvey moved with his wife and child from Austin to Dallas, Texas. The family settled in a private house and after a couple of weeks of settling in, they thought about safety. The invited expert advised them of the new technology “Ring” (Ring), which, according to the producer, is popular with young couples.

This device is built into the doorbell and allows you to remotely monitor what is happening at the entrance to the house. When someone comes to the door, the motion sensor is triggered and sends the owner a push notification to the phone. At the same time, the user can open the application at any time and observe what is happening at the entrance using a hidden camera. However, the device, which seemed to McGarvey a successful acquisition, ultimately completely discouraged the desire to use it in the long term.

Possibility to be in two places at the same time

The manufacturer "Bell" (owned by Amazon), whose price varies from 100 to 500 dollars, describes the device as a "surveillance camera of the Silicon Valley era." McGarvey did not immediately like that the device does not disguise itself as a regular doorbell, but looks like a "silver cube, casually and out of place mounted in our doorframe." In addition, the journalist did not like the meager selection of ringtones that could be put on the notice.

McGarvey's attitude changed about a month after buying the “Bell”. In July, he was left alone with the child and waited for the master to repair the washing machine. When the specialist rang the doorbell, the journalist just disguised his son on the second floor and could not be distracted. “Call” came to the rescue: the application brought the image at the entrance to the McGarvey phone, he calmly asked the master to wait a few minutes, finished with his son and went down to the door.

And so the inconvenience disappeared from my life. The disguised child on the changing table without any haste and no angry dude who wondered why I could not get to the door for so long. "The Call" gave me a parental gift: a chance to be in two places at once.

Evan McGarvey
journalist

“The Call” became the best assistant to the family man: he always knew in advance whether a deliveryman, a traveling salesman or a neighbor was on the doorstep. When the couple hired a nanny for his son and McGarvey started driving to work, he could still watch what was going on at the front door. Over time, the man began to live with technology in almost complete harmony, but then the device disturbed him.

At first, McGarvey became annoyed with the push-notification “A movement was fixed at your door”, which occurred every time the sensor caught vibrations near the entrance to the house. The journalist didn’t like the wording “Movement fixed”, as if coming from a military dictionary.

Onset of neurosis

With the arrival of autumn, the son of McGarvey caught a bad cold, so he regularly had to be taken to a doctor, and then monitored for his condition at night. The parents didn’t get enough sleep, almost on duty at the son’s crib, and at that time “The Call” continued to send push notifications about a certain “movement” at the entrance. McGarvey did not understand: the recordings of the camera did not show anything suspicious, but the device did not cease to report suspicious activity.

In an attempt to escape from the “life inside a horror movie,” the journalist dug into the settings of the application. He found that, by default, the sensor picks up and reports all movements within 10 radius from the front door. That is, the device could send those nocturnal messages because of a cat or a passer-by who was running by.

Another headache came with the function of "neighbors". Inside the “Bell” application there is a tape consisting of notifications and short videos from neighbors. For example, if someone notices a suspicious man at his house, he can send a photo of him with a description to warn the owners of nearby houses. In addition, the application records notifications from the police when officers detain a suspect nearby.

As they say on the website “Bell”, this system helps to protect itself from robbers and build relationships with its neighbors, but for McGarvey function has become a torment. As it turned out, the application added to the tape notifications from all users within a radius of four kilometers. In other words, the journalist received notifications of suspicious people from those who lived in completely different neighborhoods. At the same time, there was no special value in the messages, usually users wrote something like: “a man in a sweatshirt passed by at two o'clock in the morning” or “a woman knocked on our door, waited and left”.

After McGarvey reduced the radius of the "neighbors" function, he hoped that the application would return to normal. But then "The Bell" began to bombard him with messages from emergency services such as police, ambulance or firefighters. The journalist did not understand why he should be aware of various incidents, if they did not directly concern him, but only occurred nearby. As a result, he found himself in a stalemate: on the one hand, it is unpleasant for him to read about domestic crimes and incidents ten times a day, but on the other hand, curiosity makes it difficult to overcome the desire to read all such notifications.

In part, McGarvey regrets that he cannot comfortably use the seemingly “smart” device that should have made his life easier. But because of the constant anxiety and growing neurosis, he decided to abandon the “Bell”.

After all this damned "Call" is still near my door. Stupid, weakened and brought to the level of a digital peephole at the doorbell. I constantly tell myself that one day I will root this device out of our lives and do a digital cleaning. But so far I have not done that. The “bell” is still there: waiting for a messenger, a random child coming from school, or someone who has gone for a night walk. His unblinking eye is in constant search, ready at any moment to turn any sign of life into a threat.

Evan McGarvey
journalist

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