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ADT Is Betting Google Can Drag It Into the Future (bloomberg.com) 37

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
The century-old security giant best known for its octagonal blue logo is banking on a smart-home partnership with a company that's also one of its biggest threats. From a report: Kneeling beneath a framed print of Thomas Kinkade's painting A Peaceful Retreat, Roli Chiu, alarm system installer, began his work one day in March by unpacking boxes of devices inside a new customer's living room. It would take him five hours to set up the system. He'd begin with the command panel in the grand foyer of the 4,000-square-foot home in a Palmetto Bay, Fla., gated community -- then connect it to all the new door and window sensors, motion detectors, and smoke and carbon monoxide monitors. Yet Chiu, who estimates he's installed systems at 15,000 homes in his two decades at ADT, thought this one could benefit from a bunch of Google gadgets that the company would soon add to its portfolio. "When the Nest cameras come -- oh my goodness -- that's going to be a game changer," he said. "I love having Google on our side."

A professionally outfitted ADT system can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and in recent years the company has begun to face competition from DIY-friendly devices such as Google's Nest Cams and video doorbells, Arlo, SimpliSafe, and Amazon.com's Ring, which many homeowners have felt can offer similar peace of mind at a fraction of the cost. Then Google surprised investors in August 2020 by revealing it would buy a 6.6% stake in ADT for $450 million. As part of the deal, the companies also agreed to jointly develop products, integrate services, and have ADT's thousands of installers and salespeople promote Google's hardware. By the time Chiu began his wiring work in the Palmetto Bay home 18 months after the deal closed, it had become evident that ADT had gone all in on the Google partnership. Chiu wore a new corporate shirt emblazoned with the Google logo -- the "super G," as employees call it -- and said his ADT truck in the driveway would soon be rebranded with Google decals. He praised Google's facial recognition technology and advanced Wi-Fi (while dinging Ring's apparently weak battery life).

Across the living room, his ADT colleague, sales adviser Jordan Hernandez, talked up Google's products in front of the homeowner. "With our Google Home package, you can get the Google door lock, the Google doorbell, the Google Hub and Mini speaker for $600," he explained, adding that the devices would cost a lot more if bought separately. For ADT, a business with roots that can be traced to the 1870s, the association with an internet titan gives its services a new sheen. In addition to installation fees, ADT's 24/7 alarm monitoring usually involves three-year contracts priced from about $28 to $60 a month. The tech giants pursuing the smart home have challenged that model, just as streaming platforms caused people to rethink their relationships with cable conglomerates such as Comcast.
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ADT Is Betting Google Can Drag It Into the Future More

ADT Is Betting Google Can Drag It Into the Future

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  • What a great way (Score:2, Informative)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 )
    What a great way for Google to advertise it's spyware. Use /. as a delivery platform.

    • Re:What a great way (Score:5, Funny)

      by NateFromMich ( 6359610 ) on Friday July 01, 2022 @11:48AM (#62665822)

      What a great way for Google to advertise it's spyware.

      That accidental use of an apostrophe still makes sense. I think that's pretty impressive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      The solar company I'm signing on with wants to add a IoT device to their system. I don't need a device on my network that can be broken into. Fortunately I have a clearly documented statement from the sales rep showing that they don't need the wifi access to make the system work and to do as instructed with that part of the contract. So on their part it becomes one of two things: either move forward, or uninstall everything because it's a contract signed under false pretenses.

      • I don't need a device on my network that can be broken into.

        Hopefully I won't be perceived as flippant, but have you considered a VLAN setup using something like an OpenWRT of PDsense router/firewall? IoT devices kinda require VLANs IMHO.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dbialac ( 320955 )
          I'd rather just not use IoT devices in the first place. I've yet to find one that actually does anything useful. It's usually just a "look at what I have" experience.

          • I'd rather just not use IoT devices in the first place. I've yet to find one that actually does anything useful. It's usually just a "look at what I have" experience.

            It depends. I run Home Assistant and am in a Facebook group for it. A lot of people with solar integrate it into HA so they can set up automations to do certain things while on solar power, and other things while on grid power. For example, I know some people choose to only charge their electric cars while they're on solar/battery power.

            That said, you don't necessarily need to use whatever device is provided by your solar installer. You'd probably want something that uses WiFi for continuous data streami

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dbialac ( 320955 )
              I'm not big on battery based electric cars for various reasons, and minus a hybrid like the Karma, probably will never be. If you're looking at CO2 reduction, you can get far better results with sugarcane ethanol or hydrogen in an ICE. Both can or do create closed cycle fuel setups, which is what's needed, but I digress. I could see myself automatically turning things like a water feature on and off based on solar power as well as turning on the hot tub, which will inherently use a lot of power. With that i
      • My feeling is that if a company thinks that they need to monitor the installed equipment then they can simply install a cellular modem in their equipment and stay the fuck off of my network. Sure I can provide a port on my dedicated hardware firewall for them and their traffic only but that still brings risks. Also, they don't pay for the service provided so why would I want to do that in the first place? It is kind of like with Spectrum and their WiFi routers that they supply and you pay rent for. They

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The solar company I'm signing on with wants to add a IoT device to their system. I don't need a device on my network that can be broken into. Fortunately I have a clearly documented statement from the sales rep showing that they don't need the wifi access to make the system work and to do as instructed with that part of the contract. So on their part it becomes one of two things: either move forward, or uninstall everything because it's a contract signed under false pretenses.

        Most solar systems do want inte

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      This is why I did not buy Nest. No matter how google wants to be a consumer company, itâ(TM)s core is advertising and monetizing user data

  • ADT has the worst IT support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Friday July 01, 2022 @11:32AM (#62665768)
    I was sysadmin for a ISP and would get called out often to explain to them that no they can't hook their appliance up in front of our cable modem. We started charging customers with ADT a fee for a five port switch and a extra IP.
  • "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

    "I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you."

  • Just check Reddit's /r/homesecurity and search for "cancel ADT" and there are pages and pages of posts about the challenges of canceling ADT service.

  • This way they can collect even more info about you... plus you'll be paying them to do it!

  • I Got Plenty o' Nuttin' and Nottin' is pleanty for (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday July 01, 2022 @12:37PM (#62665950)

    The Home Security market is something that Boomers are really interested in. Decades of "News" showing that Undesirables like Minorities, Millennials and Liberals are all out to take all their gains of a lifetime. Then they got extra nervous, because they decided to post something on the paper editorial, and people 'gasp' disagreed with them, so they are defiantly out to get them!

    The younger generations in general have less stuff, so for a thief the Risk vs Reward of a house break to a younger generation is often high risk with a low reward.

    And most of the thievery that goes on, isn't a break in, but for those who leave their garage door open (while they are home) and someone walks up and grabs some expensive tools.

    • I think it's time to update your prejudices against generations. The average millennial is married with children and a mortgage. Yeah people accumulate wealth over time, but that doesn't mean security is a boomer thing.

      I have a security system as well, but then there's been 40 burglaries in our neighbourhood in the past year and it's not a big neighbourhood. None of them happened in houses which had security systems. A simple visible camera and alarm system costs like $200, and you make that money back in a

      • Yes, discount definitely pays my 13/mo with geoarm. cell monitoring too. ADT is very overpriced. I had them before. 3-5X the cost of discount monitoring places that are 24x7 and UL certified. I've been broken into several times in my life. It is not a good feeling. I get why people would shoot a robber.

      • I am not saying the other generations can't afford more. But the stuff they buy today doesn't hold it's value. Boomers often have more Jewelry, keep more cash on hand, as well many of them may be collecting gold and silver coins, as Media targeted at that age makes them think it is a superior investment. The younger generations would normally have their money going to tech that has sucky resell. The younger generation method has it's goods and bads. Such as they are not collecting wealth like the boome

    • We just bought a house that had ADT, which of course I ripped out.

      1) The board in the box was a cheap ass thing taking way more space than was needed and used a POTS line to call home.

      2) ADT went full in on sending me letter after letter telling me I must fear all the consequences of not paying them monthly because of all the bad people who will invade my house if I don't.

  • and google can listen to your sex from the keypad and sell you sex toys and more based on that data.

  • With everyone working from home now, are "home security systems" still a thing?

    • With everyone working from home now, are "home security systems" still a thing?

      Haven't you seen the commercial where someone breaks in to a white woman's house while she and her young daughter are having lunch in their nice suburban home? South Park did an episode about it.

    • Yes, it's called a shot gun.

    • With everyone working from home now, are "home security systems" still a thing?

      My neighbour got burgled while she was at home working. Thieves made off with phone, cash, wallet and keys (the last of which was the big problem since now you need to change the locks).

      Also WFH is a thing, but leisure at home is not, and neither is holidays at home.

  • Went pretty well for Sonos.
    https://www.theverge.com/22955... [theverge.com]

  • We're talking about the company that closed our emergency alarm monitoring center in Omaha so they could replace us with multiple call centers in India, and then had to open several more in America to replace them when that worked out about as well as you would expect.

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