Internet of Things fridge 'a myth' with little benefit, argues academic

Dr Alison Powell says the concept is ridiculous

The Internet of Things connected fridge is a myth and such a device wouldn't have any social benefit even if it did exist.

That's according to Dr Alison Powell, Assistant Professor of Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and technology futurist, who was speaking at a recent discussion on internet privacy at the Royal Society.

Earlier at the event, Christopher Millard, Professor of Privacy and Information Law at Queen Mary University of London, spoke on how the Internet of Things and cloud are raising "unsettling" questions over online privacy and security.

Describing the Internet of Things as "a buzzword" - a description some IT experts would disagree with - Dr Powell argued that the concept has generated a lot of wishful thinking and nonsense, such as the "enduring myth of the internet-enabled refrigerator"

"This has been an enduring myth for at least 15 years, the notion that it would be a very good idea for our refrigerators to have contact to the internet," she said.

"What are the social and cultural imaginations evolving around what an internet-enabled refrigerator might want to do. Order new eggs? Report on missing milk? Jam has mould?," asked Dr Powell, who argued that a fridge will never be able to monitor its own contents as well as a human can.

"What kinds of things would the internet-enabled refrigerator do, that a person possessing the fridge couldn't could do in a more efficient, more cognitively and electrically less demanding way is a question, certainly," she said.

"Indeed, it remains one of the great mysteries for technology futurists," Dr Powell added.

Such IoT-enabled domestic appliances might not only be of dubious value, but also dangerous, with some suggesting they could provide cyber criminals with a vulnerable entry point into networks.