“Smart Home” Tech in U.S. and Europe Succumbs to Google Outage

By B.N. Frank

Privacy and security experts have been warning about cybersecurity risks with “Smart Home” technology for many years. There have been countless reports about people being spied on and taunted by hackers (see 1, 2, 3, 4). Of course, manufacturers collect personal data too – often without users’ knowledge or consent. Mozilla just released their annual “Privacy Not Included” list for those who’d like to learn more before buying “Smart” products.

Those not deterred by any of the above may be concerned about what can happen when “Smart” tech fails. Google Nest users have experienced this before. Unfortunately, the company’s outage earlier today seemed more widespread.

From Zero Hedge:

Update (0800ET): Google says problems with its services “for the vast majority of users” should now be resolved.

Meanwhile, a lot of Google Home early adopters are probably doing a big rethink right about now.

I’m sitting here in the dark in my toddler’s room because the light is controlled by @Google Home. Rethinking… a lot right now.

— Joe Brown (@joemfbrown) December 14, 2020

Because of the outage, some schools decided to cancel online school for the day.

We look forward to the inevitable flood of thinkpieces.

* * *

Google was hit with a massive outage early Monday morning in New York as Gmail, Google Cloud, Google Classroom and pretty much all of the company’s other cloud-based services went down, snarling business and education across the country.

Starting at around 0653ET, the website Downdetector reported tens of thousands of user outage reports from the US, the UK and across Europe.

User reports indicate Youtube TV is having problems since 6:59 AM EST. https://t.co/Aof8XRrMNJ RT if you're also having problems #youtubetvdown

— Downdetector (@downdetector) December 14, 2020

User reports indicate Gmail is having problems since 6:56 AM EST. https://t.co/EsWw2oLYjH RT if you're also having problems #Gmaildown

— Downdetector (@downdetector) December 14, 2020

User reports indicate Google Classroom is having problems since 6:59 AM EST. https://t.co/mhdsqbRjFF RT if you're also having problems #googleclassroomdown

— Downdetector (@downdetector) December 14, 2020

User reports indicate Google Home is having problems since 7:01 AM EST. https://t.co/YGBGopsMdB RT if you're also having problems #googlehomedown

— Downdetector (@downdetector) December 14, 2020

Errors range from “something went wrong” on YouTube, to “there was an error. Please Try again later. That’s all we know,” when attempting to login to the company’s mail product. Google products were failing to load for users in New York, the UK and across Europe.

Google confirmed to Bloomberg that the outage affected “the majority of its services according to a Workspace Status Dashboard, which monitors the health of its products.”

Fortunately for shareholders, the company’s search product continued to function correctly, as did its third-party ad business, which is Google’s main revenue driver.

On social media, people made light of the situation, jauntily suggesting that Alphabet try “unplugging gmail then plugging it back in”, or some variation on that line.

Read all tweets and see rest of article here

Internet technology is a wonderful tool. Reliance on it though obviously has disadvantages – one of them being that “Smart” and wireless products emit harmful electromagnetic radiation (aka “Electrosmog”) which can

• cause hair loss
• cause rashes, other skin irritations, and premature skin aging
• cause and/or increase blood sugar fluctuations
• cause and/or increase cardiac health issues
• cause and/or increase insomnia
• compromise respiratory health
• disrupt the blood-brain barrier (see 1, 2, 3)
• increase cancer risk (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• increase risk for “Microwave Sickness”, Electromagnetic Sensitivity and Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
• reduce immunity to viruses and other illnesses
• and MORE

Got pets? Exposure can affect them too.

Internet connections can be made safer, more secure, and more reliable with wired Ethernet connections. Many have already made the switch.

Activist Post reports regularly about unsafe technology. For more information, visit our archives and the following websites:

• Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
• Environmental Health Trust
• Physicians for Safe Technology
• Wireless Information Network

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