Internet fridge plots spam diet

In the future, we will increasingly be swamped with spam as our 'intelligent' household equipment tries to contact us, an expert has predicted.

Paddy Nixon, a professor at the department of computer and information sciences at the University of Strathclyde, said that our mobiles and email inboxes will soon be filled with information from appliances such as internet-enabled fridges telling us that our food is out of date or that we've run out of milk.

While there are positive aspects to the developments, such as care in the community for the elderly and infirm, Nixon told The Scotsman newspaper that privacy issues need to be tackled to stop a world of sensors and computers ending up like something out of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four.

The professor also said that it is crucial that we are not bombarded with information at inappropriate times, such as the fridge phoning to tell its owner to buy more milk when the owner is in a meeting.

See also:

Junk mail

The term 'spam' may have been popularised by a Monty Python sketch but, in the electronic world, junk mail is far from a laughing matter.  06 Jun 2003

Comment: A chilling tale of fridge fury

Web-enabled fridges that can check their contents and email grocery orders when stocks run low sound like a great idea, but you will never find one in David Neal's kitchen  21 Feb 2003

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