Google Nest Users Couldn’t Unlock Doors, Use A/C, or Operate Baby Monitors During Platform Outage

By B.N. Frank

Is a “Smart” home really a happy home? Besides the increasing reports of privacy and cybersecurity risks and violations, when platform outages happen, everything connected to it stops working.

From FastCompany.com

Last night, Google reported several issues with its Cloud Platform, which made several Google sites slow or inoperable. Because of this, many of Google’s sites and services–including Gmail, G Suite, and YouTube–were slow or completely down for users in the U.S. and Europe.

However, the Google Cloud outage also affected third-party apps and services that use Google Cloud space for hosting. Affected third-party apps and services include Discord, Snapchat, and even Apple’s iCloud services.

But an especially annoying side effect of Google Cloud’s downtime was that Nest-branded smart home products for some users just failed to work. According to reports from Twitter, many people were unable to use their Nest thermostats, Nest smart locks, and Nest cameras during the downtime. This essentially meant that because of a cloud storage outage, people were prevented from getting inside their homes, using their AC, and monitoring their babies.

Of course, if you don’t mind using keys to open doors and manually turning on and off the air conditioner and baby monitors, you don’t need smart home technology.

Another bummer about this technology is that it emits harmful Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) and WiFi. Children and pets are vulnerable to exposure too. In fact, there is no safe level of wireless WiFi radiation that been scientifically determined for children or pregnant women.

Of course, if your home has utility “Smart” Meters on it, you’re being exposed to harmful radiation already. Millions of these meters have been installed in the U.S. and around the world so it’s likely that you have them unless you have been able to “opt-out.”