Do you know much about ZigBee?

The ZigBee network system that will talk to all of your utilities like the furnace,  stove, and dishwasher, is coming down the tracks and like it or not, it will be a major factor in most homes in the next 3 years or so.

There are many benefits according to the industry that is building all of the electronics that make up the ZIGBEE system.  Life is going to be so much better and happier and easier with ZIGBEE.  Just think, you can check on the temperature of your refrigerator from work or turn on the furnace automatically on your way home or dim the dining room lights from your smart phone.

However, there are many problems that have been identified about the ZIGBEE system:

RF Radiation will be increased and will be generated by ALL of your household electronic devices:  lights,  TV,  DishWasher, Stove, Clothes Washer/Dryer,  and even smart light bulbs.  The home will be awash in RF.

There are many people now that are EHS  (if you do not know what this means then do a search).  Estimates are that 10% of the general population are EHS now.  Researchers believe that this rate is increasing and soon will be 50%.  Does that mean that all homes with Smart Meters and the symbiotic ZIGBEE network will be toxic to a major segment of the population and will decrease their level of health and enjoyment of life?  There are studies that show RF Radiation has a detrimental effect on health especially in the fetus and young children.  RF Radiation has been shown to cause cancer (see Cell phone brain cancer studies).

Privacy –  Hackers will be able to find out so much about the lives of the residents of the house:  how many people are living there,  estimates on gender,  estimates on age range.  Marketing firms will be able to send advertising specifically to the target group. eg.  if you have young children then you will have marketing specifically for young children. etc.   Governmental security agencies will certainly be using this to spy on suspects. (good or bad?)

Security –  Hackers will find ways of using your ZIGBEE system to get as much information from your house as possible.  If they can steal a billion dollars from many banks (this is just in the news) then hacking the Smart Grid and your ZibBee house network should not be much of a problem.  Scenario –  Hacker turns off the power to the freezer while you are away for the weekend and all of your frozen food is now unfrozen.  Hmmm,  what to do?

Control – If all of your electronics are on the ZIGBEE network and you have some control over them, THEN agencies outside of your home will also have control over them.  This is a 1984 scenario.  Your air conditioning can be turned off when there is not enough electricity for everyone.  Is this good or bad?  The channel that you are watching on TV will be known by the ZIGBEE (maybe) and thus fed to a polling agency or marketing agency.  You may not be able to turn on the clothes dryer at supper time because the power company tells the ZIGBEE unit to prevent use until 10 pm, for instance.

It is going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Check out the details of ZIGBEE (CLICK HERE).