I wrote a guest piece for my former colleague Stacey Higginbotham’s wonderful newsletter on the internet of things. It tackled the need and importance of trust, privacy, and security in this new age of computing.
A couple of ice ages ago, when I started writing about technology, personal computing was shorthand for computers used by enthusiasts. Such machines were eons away from becoming the personal computers that now sit on our desks and in our backpacks. In the post-PC age, personal computing means tablets and smartphones. After all, these always-on mobile devices are our constant companions. We are now glued to their screens, and more importantly, they are personalized to serve our every need.
Going forward, however, personal computing will become something else thanks to the growing number of connected devices — what readers of this newsletter affectionately call the Internet of Things. Indeed, in looking around my apartment recently I realized just how many of these devices had entered the most personal of my spaces: my home.
