What if the smart LED bulbs in your house keep turning on and off randomly and the thermostat changes your room temperatures without your knowledge despite all your attempts to fix it? It could make you wonder what the hell had gone wrong, and this can happen if you have bought a smart home (that comes with smart gadgets). The previous owner might still have access to all the devices installed in your home.
The temperature of your house could change every time the previous owner adjusts his or her new thermostat if the device that controls it is still linked to the old one. The same applies to all smart gadgets, including security camera, locks, smoke detector, speakers and hubs that have been used by someone else in the past, making life insecure and irritating.
Also read: Who can set up smart homes and who shouldn't
You may perform a factory reset, change password, reinstall app and set up a new profile and then presume that only you can access the device, but there is every chance that the previous owner can still access the smart gadget. For instance, you do a factory reset of your second-hand smart hub. It may wipe away the data of the user from the app but all the devices connected to the hub will remain in its database (without the user information). The new owner will never see the previous owner's profile or devices if the hub is not removed from the account of the previous owner.
The truth is the smart-home industry is yet to reach the level of the mobile phone industry where a reset would mean wiping out every detail of the previous owner, thus selling and buying of old devices more secure.
So, what should you do if the previous owner of your smart home or smart gadget can still access the device?
The person on the helpline may suggest you to go for a factory reset of your smart gadget to ensure that the previous owner loses all access to the device but that is just not enough as it doesn't remove the user. So, the only option left is to call the device maker to remove the previous user from the device.
It is important to check details, including whether you will be able to use the device and if you are the only person who can access it, before buying a used smart gadget, as there are chances of the manufacturers not allowing a transfer of ownership.
