The coming of age of the Internet of things

That's it, 2017 is the year of the final push to make Internet of things (IoT) a reality for the mass. IoT is not a new thing, the concept of device connected to the Internet first appeared in the 90's by different proof of concept. At the turn of the century the first commercial devices connect to the Internet made their way to the market. The name Internet of Thing was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton as the title of a presentation to Proctor & Gamble. In less than ten years, devices all around the world would get connected exponentially and it's between 2008 and 2009 that the numbers of devices connected to the Internet surpassed the number of users.

So for the past ten years, IoT outnumbered Internet users. Still, the marketers are hammering the IoT message as the "new thing". It looks like the companies want to cash-in on their investment. So you can be sure that in the next months and years there will be a lot of new things that you didn't know were essential to your life. Suddenly, it will be unthinkable to live without lights that can be lit from the Internet. Once more, they will pressured us to buy technologies that are irrelevant to our live but are so fashionable.

Be aware that the big payoff for the IoT is in your privacy. The marketers want to target their publicity with a maximum of precision. Every ads that don't reach the right audience is money wasted. IoT will give all sorts of information about you, your life, your habits, etc. I am convinced that this will benefits some and may even save life in the end. But is it worth it? Does anyone still value the privacy of the home?