> It smacks of a solution in desperate need of a problem That's because you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. This kind of junk makes sense when the

> It smacks of a solution in desperate need of a problem That's because you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. This kind of junk makes sense when the problem is "how can we trick people into giving over their personal data". It doesn't have to actually work (that is, save energy or offer some significant convenience) as long as it lets you generate a database of when people spend time in their home. It's telling that insurance companies are already mentioned - as if that was a good thing. Aral Balkan's observation[1] that a lot of modern business plans are based on surveillance ("it's about the data"), Al Jazeera recent investigation[2] of this power grab is surprisingly detailed. > that cannot be allowed to be a thing I completely agree. I only hope this can be fought before we end up with one of the nastier end-games[3]. [1] https://projectbullrun.org/surveillance/2015/video-2015.html#balkan https://projectbullrun.org/surveillance/2015/video-2015.html... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAL1lVvJxew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAL1lVvJxew [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcTKWiZ8sI