CES 2021: Smart beds, baths and toilets to launch but experts warn of privacy risks

Beds, baths and even toilets will get smart as hi-tech home technology booms. But experts warn your privacy may be at risk.

Brace for internet-savvy bedding, intelligent showers, a $20,000 smart bath you can fill by talking to it, and even a “wellness toilet” that assesses your health based on what you leave inside it.

At the world’s biggest technology show, almost everything is being connected to the internet and controlled with an app.

And the new devices are being unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show after a boom in smart home upgrades as more people stayed home during the pandemic.

But experts warn there are still plenty of security potholes and risks to avoid when setting up smart devices, and users may have to assess whether they’re ready to swap their private information for convenience.

The Toto Wellness Toilet, a concept unveiled at CES 2021, promises to assess your health using the skin that it touches and your faecal deposits.

Research from the Consumer Technology Association showed shipments of do-it-yourself smart home gadgets, from connected doorbells to security cameras and speakers, rose 17 per cent during 2020 and in Australia Telsyte forecast smart home device sales would reach $4.8 billion a year by 2024 following a “mini-boom in connected devices”.

Schneider Electric North American vice-president Michael Mahan said the technology had come a long way from just turning lights on and off with an app to predicting your routines and triggering multiple home appliances when they were needed.

But consumers were only just starting to realise that they often did “trade away some degree of privacy for some amount of convenience and comfort” when hooking up smart home devices, he said. That could include having a map of their home uploaded to the internet in the case of a smart robot vacuum cleaner, or having their home monitored for “wake words” like “Alexa” and “Hey Google”.

“People are still coming to grips with this and understanding what their own personal boundaries are — what they want to share versus what they don’t want to share,” he said.

“(The data these devices collect) can include lots of personal information, family habits, personal habits, and so it needs to be protected and handled with care. There’s security and privacy risks that may generate a trust deficit and make more customers hesitant to use smart devices.”

Smart speakers are often the first smart home products installed in homes.

Essence Group chief technology officer Ohad Amir warned consumers should be particularly wary about connecting smart gadgets directly to the internet, and should take care to research new devices and a brand’s reputation carefully to ensure they did not introduce a weak link to their system.

“If someone hacks your home network by one of the cameras that you have at home that is not secure or hacks into one of your computers, they have access to your entire network,” Mr Amir said.

“Separate connections stop that. It makes each devices separate and it makes the work hard for the hacker.”

The security risks haven’t stopped a new wave of smart home appliances and gadgets being unveiled at the virtual tech expo, however, with some of the more unusual offerings including an Ergomotion Smart Bed that can rate your sleep and trigger your smart coffee maker, the Toto Wellness Toilet concept product that makes a health assessment of its user based on their waste products, and the Kohler Stillness Bath.

It can be filled and heated using a voice assistant, comes with overflow drainage and lighting, and creates a mysterious fog above the water to mimic a luxury spa. Its $20,000 price tag may deter some buyers when it launches late this year, however.

Originally published as CES 2021: Smart beds, baths and toilets to launch but experts warn of privacy risks