Living in a smart home

Contents

Introduction

1. Living in a smart home increases the diversity of everyday life management skills
   1.1 Home, household, residence and smart home
   1.2 The concept of a household has become wider
   1.3 The roles and operating environments of a household
2. Household and consumption
   2.1 Household in platform economy
   2.1.1 Household consumes an increasing amount of services
   2.1.2 Household and platform economy are becoming intertwined
   2.2 Platform economy is a business activity
   2.3 What creates the value of the platforms
   2.4 Platforms are based on exchange
   2.5 Media of exchange in digitalised everyday life
   2.5.1 Money
   2.5.2 Information, i.e. data
   2.5.3 Time
3. Information networks and smart home
   3.1 Digitalisation created new ecosystems
   3.1.1 Ecosystems of platform economy
   3.1.2 Household ecosystem
   3.1.3 Household as ecosystem customer
4. Technology used in a smart home
   4.1 Operating principles of a smart device
   4.2 Applications and network-connected household appliances
5. Housekeeping in the digital era
   5.1 Digitalisation changes the home and its operation
   5.2 Everyday tasks are becoming digital
6. Smart solutions helping households
   6.1 Dining and food economy management
   6.2 Living and cleanliness
   6.3 Home information management and use of services
   6.4 Housekeeping
   6.4.1 Applications for monitoring home economy
   6.5 Communications, comfort and living together
   6.6 Mobility is becoming servicificated and based on digital infrastructure
7. Management of a smart home is based on contracts
   7.1 Making contracts is a consumer skill
   7.2 Contracts are often complex
   7.3 Household as a subscriber to smart products, services and content
8. Privacy protection and information security of a smart home
   8.1 Checklists for information security at home
9. Learning to live in a smart home
   9.1 Family upbringing in digital everyday life
   9.2 Child’s growth and development in smart everyday life and environment
   9.3 Changing consumer education and teaching of consumer skills at school

Sources

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Introduction

According to a 2013 estimate by OECD, a family with two teenagers will own, on average, 50 Internet connected devices by 2022. According to the IT research company Gartner, a household will have over 500 smart devices in 2022. Just as mobile phones, smart devices are becoming the most offered and popular option on the market. Any household object or structure can be an Internet-connected smart device, such as household appliances, toys, floors and beds. At the same time consumers purchase a device or a flat, or build a house, they also purchase a service.

Digitalisation is a change that impacts all sectors of business and public services. The ongoing change has been compared to the earlier industrial revolutions that not only thoroughly changed the production methods but also the business, society and households.

The Internet of Things will create an infrastructure that enables the storage, utilisation and distribution of data collected by the things and relayed to the Internet. A continuous Internet connection and the Internet-related cloud services of the things are an essential part of the system as a whole, as the collected data is stored in a location from where it can be further distributed to other devices.

Data is the driving force of comprehensive solutions and operations based on artificial intelligence. Companies have realised the key role and value of data. The change is already visible in the everyday life of consumers, too, and it is not only about the technology used in homes. The business models and approaches of companies producing goods and services to consumers are also changing at the same time. When it comes to business, it will change into a service business. An increasing amount of services are designed, marketed and sold to households instead of or in connection with products. As a result, we live in homes where ownership is not important to quality of life; pleasant and functional everyday life is.

A high-quality service provided to a consumer requires the company to do a much greater amount of planning and taking the consumer into consideration than the selling of goods. For this reason, gathering data on households and the utilisation of this data are important in the production of services.

The consumer society is changing towards a service society and self-management. A couple of examples of this: the online banking system, and the customer taking care of the entire purchasing process at a store in the future. Services are showing an increasing amount of signs of the transfer of the service transaction to be carried out by the customer. We can also use the term ‘self-service society’.

A home where Internet-connected devices, programmes, systems and services are used to run the home can be called a smart home.

Artificial intelligence and self-learning systems will also become more prevalent in the homes of the future. Artificial intelligence is a wide concept, and there does not exist a single, precise definition for it. When talking about the application of artificial intelligence, one should not define artificial intelligence too strictly; instead, one should be purposeful. Artificial intelligence means devices, software and systems that are able to learn and make decisions in almost the same way as people. Artificial intelligence will help them operate in a sensible manner according to the task and the circumstances.

A smart home brings multiple benefits to its inhabitants. The home becomes more practical, as smart devices work together, making housekeeping tasks automatic. Energy-efficiency and cost savings will also increase, as smart energy devices can optimise the energy consumption of the home.

When choosing services, the consumer will need to consider the following questions, for example: What services do I need for active use? What is my monthly budget and what things can I afford? What will be the consequence of a service affecting my everyday life will suddenly stop working? There are a number of contracts on the background of the devices and services of a smart home. Just like services, the contracts are primarily online, and managing the thicket of contracts is part of everyday life management.

Consumers can identify an IoT device by, for example, network connectors, SIM cards or the device asking for the WLAN password. Devices connect to the Internet primarily over a WLAN, mobile network or a fixed intranet. The device can be managed on a phone or a tablet, or its data can be viewed in an online service with a browser.  There are more privacy protection and information security risks in a smart home than before. Neglecting security has already resulted in the hacking of household devices, and information security defects are used in Internet crime.

The risks of a smart home are also evident in interoperability deficiencies. Commercial ecosystems can lock down a consumer to a specific brand through technological means, thus reducing choice and competition. Furthermore, on a market where the functionality and security of a device is dependent on regular software updates and support services, the purchase of a smart device may be useless or even a security risk, if support is unavailable.

1 Living in a smart home increases the diversity of everyday life management skills

The phrase ‘everyday life management’ describes the activities of everyday life and even coping with one’s life. In home economics, everyday life management is defined as an operational process where material and human interaction are intertwined. It is a concept that coordinates the goal, knowledge, skills and interaction of the activity. Everyday life management is the reconciliation of the consumer’s assets and resources with the challenges posed by needs and everyday life with the well-being of the household members as the objective. A smart home provides new resources while it also requires changes to everyday life management. Taking care of oneself and everyday skills are amongst the goals of the transversal competencies in basic education.

The fourth industrial revolution will significantly change household activities. This will also impact the teaching of home economics and civics in educational institutions. Digital service economy, or platform economy, will be included as learning content. The platform’s own services are mainly online and immaterial, but other platform economy actors also engage in the traditional sale of goods. In the forms of new economy, value and productivity are also based on immaterial services produced, delivered and consumed with digital platforms. The service portfolio will include products or services produced by several parties. Data lies in the core of a smart home, and that of consumership, as do the applications, platforms, and their ecosystems and tools intended for processing said data. The platforms and platform economy involve many concepts that have not yet become established, and the concepts may be understood differently in different contexts.

A platform usually refers to a system where one or several key companies control, manages, steers and owns a platform technology common to all, such as an operating system or application store of a phone or a computer.

Ecosystem is used to describe self-managed groups of companies, customers and other actors. A platform usually refers to a system where one or several key companies control, manages, steers and owns a platform technology common to all, such as an operating system or application store of a phone or a computer.

As the fourth industrial revolution significantly changes household activities, it will also have a large impact on the teaching of home economics and civics. Platform economy, the value and productivity of which are mainly based on immaterial services produced, delivered and consumed with digital platforms, will be included in the teaching of economics. Living in a smart home, with the connection of its functions to information networks at its core, must be included in the teaching of how to be a consumer. The key facets of platform economy are data and the applications, platforms and ecosystems intended for processing it, and the running of the household based on big data.

Teachers will need an overall idea and a sufficiently profound understanding of smart homes and the Internet of Things in order to be able to teach consumer skills to consumer of different ages.

• What is a smart home as a physical and technical entity collecting data?
• What is everyday life that is undergoing digitalisation?

The teaching should be able to describe the following key operating principles in order for people to be able to perceive the digital service economy and manage in their everyday lives:

• products and services are produced, delivered and consumed with the help of digital platforms;
• several providers (called ‘third parties’) usually work with digital platforms; and
• the operations of the home are becoming automated with the help of information networks (computer software, the Internet of Things, robots), which makes everyday life easier when proper security measures are taken.

1.1 Home, household, residence and smart home 

Home is simultaneously a space-related concept and a system of social relationships of its inhabitants. A home is a residence, a place where one lives as a consumer. It is also often described as a place where a family lives, an emotional relationship between the family members.

The home’s devices with smart features collect data on the movements of its inhabitants, and the most advanced ones learn from this data. The devices are connected over the Internet to the device manufacturers and service providers, who are able to utilise the collected data in the further development of the devices and the targeting of their marketing.

When smartness and data is used to make life in the home easier, the traditional idea of space, time and place changes. The home and the residence can be remotely managed, and social interaction can also take place remotely. The home of an individual may be in several different locations or residences. The importance of communications technologies in the creation and shaping of a family and a community will be emphasised. Family and home, just as identity, are mental constructs. Emotions reserved for them, such as fellowship, closeness, friendship and love, are increasingly satisfied via technology.

According to Statistics Finland, buildings that are entirely or primarily in residential use are defined as residences. They also include all structures connected to the buildings, such as garages, and all fixed furniture installed in the residences. Houseboats, barges, campers and caravans are also residences when they are used as the main residence of a household, and historical monuments that are primarily in residential use.

Examples of residences are detached and semi-detached houses and other residential buildings intended for permanent residence. A residence is most commonly connected to electrical, water and sewer networks. Furthermore, all residential and leisure properties are obligated to obtain a subscription for municipal waste disposal.

A residence is not smart without an Internet connection. A residence can be connected to Internet either over a broadband connection or a mobile network. Technology makes a residence a service platform.

A smart residence functions in the way the people living in it want, as the home is taught the habits of its inhabitants. Smart dwelling can be divided into three factors: dwelling, building technology and construction of residential areas. Today, smart dwelling and automation are topics for all three.

Smart building technology means automated, remotely controlled building technology that includes, for example, lighting, heating, ventilation and security. Smart solutions can be taken into consideration already during the construction and renovation of the residence through the installation of various sensors that measure temperature, humidity and motion, for example. Computers analyse the data collected by the sensors in order to identify the actions of the inhabitants and the events taking place in the home. A smart home responds to the actions of the inhabitants by controlling the systems of the smart home. One example of this kind of behaviour by a smart home is turning the lights on when an inhabitant enters a room. Everything starting from remotely controlled wall sockets is some sort of a smart home solution.

In a smart home, we live surrounded by technology, and the devices we use are increasingly often networked. According to Statistics Finland, in November 2016 almost every one of the 2.6 million households in Finland had at least one mobile phone. As many as 88 per cent of Finns aged 16 to 89 years used Internet in 2017. Only a bit over ten per cent of households lack a computer and an Internet connection. The majority of mobile phones are smartphones. One out of ten households still use a traditional landline phone. Laptop computers and tables are replacing desktop computers. Various wearable smart devices are also common: activity bracelets, smart watches, smart glasses, smart shirts, etc. Members of every fifth household used wearable smart devices in November 2016.

Mobile broadband has become prevalent alongside smartphones, tablets and laptops; two out of three households already have it. Almost as many households also have a WLAN.

1.2 The concept of a household has become wider

Through digitalisation, the functioning of a household has expanded and become more abstract. When striving to achieve the well-being of homes and families, for instance, it is increasingly difficult to define what is essential. The activities of a household comprise the following elements:

The activity process of a household comprises the following elements:

1. food supply and dining;
2. cleanliness and clothing;
3. dwelling, the management, maintenance and service of equipment, updates and repairs;
4. caring for the community members;
5. management of the household resources, money, data, time, conducting business, purchases and communications;
6. sleeping, resting, caring for oneself;
7. hanging around, social interaction and hobbies;
8. remote work and study; and
9. acting within the society.

All of the above-mentioned activities are performed in a residence, and smart devices, applications and services are available to make all of them easier and more entertaining. Technology changes the residence to a service platform that lives and adapts according it users, the inhabitants. With the help of data, the residence learns to anticipate events and service providers will know the needs of the inhabitants.

Figure 1. A smart home.

Consumers produce data in their homes and everyday activities, which also creates value and business. Even if we do not live in a residence built to be a smart home, data collected of the household activities with different smart devices is under the careful scrutiny of companies. Indeed, consumers should be aware of it not being trivial:

• how companies utilise the current data collected of us;
• in what ways new data can be collected or purchased of us, the consumers; and
• how the data collected of us can be refined.

1.3 The roles and operating environments of a household

A household is an individual person or a group of persons living together, who share their food or money. A single commonly accepted definition of the operating of a household cannot be presented, because there are different interpretations of the operation of a household and housekeeping as concepts. The definitions of the operating of a household differ from each other, for example, with regard to whether housekeeping includes activities related to the care and upbringing of family members, and to personal relationships. There are also differences in the definitions with regard to how psychological or mental work is included.

Services produced by households for themselves mean services that are produced by combining unpaid housework, capital and market commodities. In a production process, capital, or machines and equipment, is needed for the services they produce and are therefore defined as commodities of an investment nature.

Services produced by households are usually consumed immediately by the household itself. They only differ from services purchased from the market mainly due to no market price being established for them, as they are produced and consumed by the same unit. Household production can be described by task, for example: dwelling services, food services, clothing and care services, and helping other households and volunteer work.

Production with a social objective is characteristic to the activities of a household. It also includes a moral dimension, and the activity is almost always intertwined with values. Activities serving material objectives are linked with psychological, sociocultural and even political factors. As a result of these complex links, a household is a patchwork of social, moral and financial activities.

The development path of a household has been a migration from subsistence economy towards a consumer economy increasingly dependent on monetary economy. For ages, now, the human labour force of a household has not been used for obtaining subsistence directly from the nature; instead, it has been used for obtaining money and purchasing the necessary commodities with the money earned. This has meant dependence on production and the market.

The following diagram describes the modern circulation of consumption. In the centre of the diagram, there is platform economy that lies in both circles. The lower part of the diagram includes household resources and media of exchange.

Figure 2. “Consumer in the circle of consumption”, Vuokko Jarvaa 2009, in the article “Ympäristö tunkeutuu kotiin mukaillen”.

Platform economy changes households as it makes services available in homes. Sharing economy in particular will also encourage a new kind of subsistence and community economy. The work performed changes, various services help manage the household, urban greenhouses are created for food production, various health services become a part of living, building managers and property operators take care of the practical issues related to dwelling. All such services are digital consumption and dependent on monetary economy but also data economy.

In data economy, data is utilised in the development of services, products and business activities. Data economy was created when the wide-scale collection, storage and transfer of data became technically and financially feasible. For example, search engine advertising and the income from it are data economy. The terms data and information economy are sometimes used as synonyms.

Digitalisation affects all aspects of the everyday life of a consumer: finances, social relationships, labour markets and health care, as well as other service important to the consumer. Economic institutions are simultaneously undergoing a change: private companies, public authority, the social economy institutions of the civic society and households. Because the economic institutions are dependent on each other, changes to each part of the network affect all actors.

Home is the well-being centre of everyday life. Well-being is both measurable things as well as private values and feelings. Measurable aspects of well-being include health, living conditions and livelihood, or the material part of well-being, and it also includes social relationships, self-fulfilment and happiness. These aspects support one another in a household. In turn, dwelling enables the other activities producing well-being, such as dining, financial planning, spending leisure time and care.

The home economy serves the consumer and the household and its member community by producing well-being. The well-being of a household is not merely financial gain that, in turn, steers business activities, for example. The economy of a civic society is represented by organisations that focus on the content of the activities and have a relatively small financial significance.

Economic institutions can be divided as follows:

1. private companies;
2. public authority;
3. social economy institutions of the civic society; and
4. households.

The following describes the roles and operating environment with which a household interacts. Platforms that link the operating environments into a network are a new entrant in the centre of all of this. Figure by the FCCA.

Figure 3. The roles and operating environments of a household.

Traditional operating environments of everyday life

1. We operate in a commercial market in all trading, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Goods and services are sold and bought there, acting in the roles of a consumer and a trader, and operating with prices. The operations are based on financial decision-making, and the consumer is a contractual partner in trading. Marketing, contractual practices and defects are handled in accordance with the Consumer Protection Act. At the same time, people act as data subjects and data controllers. 
2. On the markets of public services, shared services are produced and used (e.g. roads, schools, hospitals). There, the role is that of a citizen, and the local authorities and the state are primarily responsible for the production of the services. Money is the medium of exchange either directly or indirectly. The operations are based on the use of tax revenue and democratic decision-making.
    The statutory duties of the authorities often require the processing of personal data. Educational institutions, for example, collect data on their students they need for organising the education. Tax officials, in turn, process personal data while levying taxes. 
3. On the labour market, the roles are those of an employee and an employer. The medium of exchange is money that is paid as wages for the performance of work. The rights and obligations are determined in accordance with labour law and the collective bargaining agreements.
    Employers collect data of their job applicants they need in order to select the correct applicant and to handle the employment relationship in accordance with the Act on the Protection of Privacy in Working Life. 
4. We use the volunteer activity market when we, for example, take our children to bandy practice, the participation in which requires a membership in a sports club. The activities are controlled by the club’s rules which are, in turn, controlled by the association legislation.
    Associations process the personal data of their members in order to handle membership issues, and the data of their customers needed in the services they arrange.

2 Household and consumption

2.1 Household in platform economy

2.1.1 Household consumes an increasing amount of services

Service is a complex concept, as it can be understood in different ways in different contexts. A service may refer to, for example, certain professions, the service sector as one facet of economy, different service industries or a service as a product.

Digital services are created for consumers by combining data from different sources in new kinds and offering it for real-world devices and products. A digital service transforms “dwelling” into a part of all personal life, to which close personal relationships belong in addition to home.

Services are created on the market for the everyday lives of consumers, changing households into service users. The services are used on smart devices, and the homes act as a type of service platform and a substrate for the growth of the service platforms.

The concept of servicification means the processes of companies, in which they move from the sales of individual products to products that are inseparably intertwined with complementary services.

Table 1.    Key differences between immaterial commodities, or services, and physical commodities, or goods. Source: Grönroos 2000 and Normann 2000.

Goods	Services
Primarily material, concrete	Primarily immaterial, abstract
Homogeneous	Heterogeneous
Production and distribution are separate	Production, distribution and consumption are simultaneous
A thing	A function or a process
Key value is created in a factory	Key value is created in the interaction between the buyer and seller
Customers do not (usually) participate in the production process	Customers participate in the production process
Can be stored	Cannot be stored
Ownership changes	Ownership does not change
Can be resold	Cannot be resold
Can be demonstrated before purchase	Cannot be demonstrated before purchase (service does not exist before it is purchased)

In turn, households can be considered to become servicificated when they, for example, pay for a licence or performance instead of ownership, or move to using services instead of performing housekeeping work. 

2.1.2 Household and platform economy are becoming intertwined

A household acquires various services for household activities via platforms. You can also do business with a platform when making an online purchase. The platforms involve many concepts that have not yet become established, and the concepts may be understood differently in different contexts. Discussions on the digital market include concepts such as sharing, circular, gig and on-demand economy, and exchange, peer-to-peer, collaborative or sharing economy, depending on the context in which the platform is used.

Collaborative, exchange, peer-to-peer, or sharing economy means fully or partially digitally operating services where people and companies share or exchange property, time or skills either fully gratuitously or against a small fee or a small service in return. The concept refers to a shared, or communal, economy, its use and production. The sharing of services or participating in different services together are also a part of collaborative economy. As its name suggests, collaborative economy is the offering of extraneous (or underused) resources to be used by others, taking place between individual people (consumer-to-consumer, C2C, or peer-to-peer, P2P) via a network platform. Anything from digital content to cars and from goods to services can be shared.

The name collaborative economy emphasises the objective of giving more and more people the opportunity of using commodities without having to purchase them. In a time bank, services are exchanged for time. The objective has been said to be the use of resources in accordance with sustainable development. The concept of collaborative consumption is also linked to collaborative economy.

In gig economy and on-demand economy, private persons offer various services to other private persons or companies via a marketplace platform offered by a broker. The platform is a brokering service through which the work performances and compensations are handled against a fee.

The platforms and applications of platform economy are shaking up the nature of work. Gig and on-demand economy is a step forward in the development of digital work. Bicycle couriers and Uber drivers are examples of this. Labour protection does not currently reach the platform economy participants to any great extent. Indeed, the phenomenon brings up a new perspective for the ethical considerations of consumption choices with respect to working conditions and employee rights.

According to Sitra’s definition, circular economy is an economic model in which materials and value circulate. In it, added value is created for products through services and smartness. Circular economy aims to eliminate waste almost completely, keeping the materials circulating and non-renewable natural resources are replaced with renewables. Circular economy is realised through the decision-making of companies and consumers.

The following diagram illustrates the connections and overlaps of these concepts, and helps understand the varied use of the concepts in their different concepts. The phenomenon represented by Uber, for example, is called collaborative, platform or peer-to-peer economy: a private person orders the service, another delivers it, and a company like Uber provides the platform for these two to meet.

2.2 Platform economy is a business activity

Digital platforms are technological solutions that have enabled entirely new forms of economic activity and related data processing.  Platform economy is a significant part of digitalisation, and it has transformed the production of services. Used goods, for example, are sold on electronic marketplaces where private persons can be both the sellers and buyers of the goods. The marketplace can just relay messages between the parties to the trade. It can also require the sellers to reliably identify themselves in the marketplace, which increases the legal protection of the buyers. The maintainer of the marketplace will then be responsible for the processing of the personal data of the sellers as the controller.

On digital platforms, the different actors – users, providers and other stakeholders across organisational borders – produce added value for the activity together. It is typical to platforms that different actors create, offer and maintain products and services that complement each other for different distribution channels and markets with common rules and user experiences. They involve and attract actors with the economic benefits created by network effects.

Digital platform economy often supports a business activity that has achieved a significant or a dominant position in the market. Small investments in fixed capital, low unit and transaction costs and data-based algorithmic business models are often characteristic to such business activities. Digital platform economy can be defined as a platform economy the products of which are mainly immaterial services produced, delivered and consumed with the help of digital platforms, often built on products or services produced by third parties.

Today, the companies that have managed to create platforms through which large numbers of people look for information, work, services and goods are at the forefront of development and able to define entire business ecosystems. Examples of such platforms include:

• Collaborative economy (e.g. Airbnb);
• Social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter);
• Centralised marketplaces (e.g. travel); and
• Comparison websites (e.g. vertaa.fi and hintaseuranta.fi).

From the consumer perspective, the platform appears as a participation opportunity. It can be about citizen activism that strongly leans on social media. On the platform, citizens may combine earning money and their own social encounters. The organisation owning the platform handles the data transfer and payments. The brokering organisation strives to build sufficient trust in the parties to the online activity. From the user’s perspective, user experience is the value produced by the platform.

2.3 What creates the value of the platforms

In a business activity, value refers to financial value, customer value and social value.  From the perspective of an individual’s consumption, the concept of value has dimensions in both private and public economies.

In a household, the value of a consumed product or service is not only the satisfaction of basic needs: it also has a social differentiation dimension and an expression of one’s identity dimension, where social status, fellowship and differentiation from others are sought. In a consumer society, the brand value of many activities has become emphasised; the value of consumption choices made during everyday life is the larger the better it supports the individual’s identity and lifestyle. A third dimension is use or practical value. It is realised in the everyday life, and it is a question of the comfort, ease and economic efficiency of life’s activities. A well-functioning household or ecosystem in which everyday activities go smoothly produces value to its members. Experiantiality is the fourth form of value. It involves the previous value-producing elements, but also physical sensory experiences, emotional and mental experiences, and pleasure and feeling of safety.

It is also the objective of platforms offering services to establish a sense in their user groups of the platform serving the needs of the group and producing value to their users. The platform market is largely based on value produced by the users themselves. For commercial actors, the value is ultimately measured as a financial gain.

Platforms which manage to get as many corporate users as possible to experience benefit from the platform succeed best. The benefit manifests as, for example, the users attracting application developers and the applications attracting consumer users. Success is thus largely built on network effects.

In other words, the platform has many parties producing something that the platform users can utilise. A platform producer can be both a private person or an organisation. The producers can also be platform users at the same time, such as is the case with Facebook and YouTube, where the users share content on the platform, complement the platform, but also consume the platform content by reading the updates of others and viewing the videos uploaded by others.

In traditional business, the company attempts to create value for the customer through products or services. In platform economy, the business value is created as the result of the collaboration between the platform’s different users and actors.

2.4 Platforms are based on exchange

In platform economy, the objects of exchange and search on the platform are central: data, work, services and goods, and the value created for them. The media of exchange are data, money and reputation.

The platform developers and owners utilise data collected from different user groups and activate the users to share their customer experiences in order to create value in the community and increase their business.

The terms and conditions of online services indicate what kind of personal data the service user commits to. Photographs uploaded to a social media service, for example, can also be used for other purposes in accordance with the terms of service. Even if service users remove their photographs from the service, they may end up stored in other services.

The operation of the platform is always based on the collection of data and the distribution of data between the platform users; from producers to consumers and from consumers to producers according to the purpose of the platform. In each case, data distribution involves various functions that are data built into the platform itself. However, the processing of personal data is required to be open. For this reason, the various online services must disclose how personal data is processed in the service during login.

The function and purpose of a platform can also be the exchange of goods and services. By exchanging data, the platform users exchange content, goods and services with each other. The actual exchange of goods or services can take place outside the platform as well. Data on such exchanges is also usually collected in the platform.

Payment is usually involved in the exchange of goods and services in some form of money. The payment can be a transfer of money using a credit card or some other payment instrument or channel. There are also other ways users can pay. The user can increase the producer’s online visibility through views, recommendations, etc., that increase the impact and value of the producer. Attention, impact, renown and reputation are thus means of payment comparable to money in platform economy. The concept of attention economy is also used. Users can also pay for a product either in full or partially by providing information on themselves. Data has become a means of payment, which should be understood by the service users.

2.5 Media of exchange in digitalised everyday life

2.5.1 Money

Money is a legal means of payment that we can use to pay our debts, taxes and other payments, for example. Commodities and means of production are exchanged into money, and money is used to acquire other commodities and means of production. Money is also a measure of value, used to indicate the value of the commodities, and we can also use it to compare the values of different commodities with each other.

2.5.2 Information, i.e. data

While online, consumers are trading daily by disclosing information on themselves, although they do not necessarily realise they are doing it. This is data, or information that is in a computer readable, transferrable or processable form. Consumers pay Google, Instagram, Facebook and numerous other free services by providing them with data on themselves and their browsing. This enables a circular model where the data disclosed by the consumer to the companies returns to the consumer in the form of targeted advertisements.

The collected data is also used in the development of the services and products. At its best, the data is used to develop the customer experience of committed buyers and, for example, the smoothness of the functionality. In a nutshell, it can be said that consumer data is the merchandise of companies and a key part of the mechanism of a digital service society.

2.5.3 Time

The time spent in a digital operating environment is one medium of exchange. By viewing and using, recommending and sharing in social media, the user gains involvement in the community while increasing the online visibility of the producer. In other words, the user pays for the use of the service with the time he or she spends online. The consumer also pays with his or her time when conducting online business and making online purchases. For example, consumers use their own time when making travel reservations online or acting as content producers and distributors of their own resources on the platforms. The time spent in the maintenance and updating of digital devices alone is also a price we pay to digitalisation as time.

3 Information networks and smart home

3.1 Digitalisation created new ecosystems

The operating environment of a consumer, i.e., the relationship between a household and the suppliers of digital services and devices, can be examined by means of ecosystem thinking.

The roots of ecosystem thinking are in James F. Moore’s “Business Ecosystems” concept. According to traditional business thinking, the operations of a company are solely based on the relationship between the company and the customer. The idea has been that the better and with better terms and conditions a company is able to meet the need of its customer, the better it will do. However, traditional production is no longer the only method of producing commodities for the market; instead, companies work together, forming ecosystems. In digital economy, networking methods are the most profitable, as the network effects multiply the benefits from the operations.

3.1.1 Ecosystems of platform economy

When the topic is business, economic or digital ecosystems, the concept of platform is close to the concept of ecosystem. These terms are often considered to be almost synonymous. Ecosystem is used to describe self-managed groups of companies, customers and other actors. A platform usually refers to a system where one or several key companies control, manages, steers and owns a platform technology common to all, such as an operating system or application store of a phone or a computer.

Platform economy is an amalgamation of three kinds of ecosystems:

• A business ecosystem is a symbiotic, value-creating system formed by companies, research organisations and individual people that is organised around a central idea, actor or platform – which is often digital – in order to create value for both its customers and the parties of the ecosystem.
• An innovation ecosystem is created when a business ecosystem, described above, needs innovations to support it in the development and commercialisation of new solutions. An innovation ecosystem is commonly built around several ideas and needs. It is able to dynamically leverage also other actors than companies, research organisations and individual people.
• The business and innovation ecosystems described above are organised on digital platforms. They are called digital platform ecosystems. They are IT systems and involve common operational principles that the various actors (users, providers and other stakeholders across organisational borders) use to jointly carry out activities that create added value. Digital platform ecosystems are a part of a more extensive group of ecosystems, strongly defined by a new resource: digital data and technologies intended for its refinement, particularly software and automation.

3.1.2 Household ecosystem

A household with its members and connections can also be considered to be a kind of an ecosystem. A family or a community can be a symbiotic system creating value through the management of everyday life, organised around a shared residence or refrigerator in order to create value for both itself and the parties of the ecosystem. The well-being or successful activity of each member depends on the success of the other members and the ecosystem they create. Furthermore, households are networking into an increasing number of directions as they transition from the production of housekeeping work to the use of services. On the other hand, various shared use solutions for households create household ecosystems.

A household is an ecosystem even if it has only one member, because the ecosystem includes the interaction between the household functions.

In the era of traditional business model thinking, the household “ecosystem” containing many actors and functions had business and traded with individual businesses, making the contractual relationships clear. The guardians made the purchase decisions and managed the household resources.

In addition to business models, the household and family models are undergoing a large change. The increasing participation of children and youths in family decision-making and media is one example of such a change.

3.1.3 Household as ecosystem customer

In consumption habits, digital commodities are replacing physical products, but using the bits requires a terminal device and its applications. The sales of e-books, for example, require that someone has sold an e-book reader to the consumer. Acquiring one requires the consumer to have some kind of an idea of e-book readers. The sales of e-book readers, in turn, require that content is available somewhere for the e-book readers for use by the consumer.

In the example above, the consumer deals with two different actors. The consumer must keep track of contracts, pricing and delivery terms for both the device and the content. A typical example of an ecosystem is computer business, where independent hardware and software vendors sell their products to the same customers. In order to be successful, a hardware vendor needs software vendors in its ecosystem, while a software vendors needs hardware vendors.

When companies operate as an ecosystem, the success of each company affects the customer experience of the shared ecosystem. In other words, the companies are dependent on each others’ success and responsibility even if they are not necessarily in business relationship with each other.

A company operating within an ecosystem bases its business on the idea that it is worthwhile to consider how it can help the operations of other companies and actors supporting its business activities and how it can share value within its ecosystem. For example, a company can share technological or commercial data with the other companies in the ecosystem. This may benefit the company even if some of the companies in the ecosystem are its competitors.

From the perspective of households, the change to the previous lies in the household ecosystem no longer operating with individual companies. A single vendor remains a party to the trade, but the entire ecosystem may affect the usability or the service experience. The contractual partners can be private companies, public services or individual consumers.

The object of trade can be a terminal device with which several housekeeping tasks are handled and on which several different applications are used. Indeed, when the commodity is a service, there are two ecosystems interacting with each other in the trade and the use of the service.

4 Technology used in a smart home

The essential functions related to a smart home are often connected to a shared user interface that is monitored and used over the household’s intranet with, for example, a mobile phone or a computer and, to some extent, with a remote key. The systems can also be operated from elsewhere over the Internet, if the user so desires.

Systems from different suppliers may be connected to the same user interface, such as control automation, the ground source heat pump, the ventilation system, the AV system and the sauna stove. This requires know-how in order to integrate the systems already at the construction stage of the home. The consumer’s choice of user interfaces may steer towards a single ecosystem.

4.1 Operating principles of a smart device

The basic principle of a smart device is that it has an in-built small computer that is constantly connected to the Internet or the control centre of a smart home. The computer in the smart device monitors the data detected by the sensors and transfers it over a network connection to the control centre of a smart home or directly, over an Internet connection, to an application that can be used with a smartphone, for example.

In practice, the purpose of the smart device is to transfer data collected by a sensor. The device not only performs the duties of a traditional household appliance, but several services have been combined into it with the help of a computer. A smart device also provides data that a normal device does not, such as real-time data on heat consumption or malfunctions.

4.2 Applications and network-connected household appliances

Applications that can be used to manage electrical and electronic equipment are also a part of a smart home. When coming home, a user can operate the networked devices with the application, for example turn up heat in the sauna, adjust the temperature and air conditioning of the home, monitor the home’s security devices or, for instance, start the washing machine at the desired time.

The Internet of Things (IoT) means the expansion of the Internet to devices and machines. As a result, residences are becoming smart one thing at a time.

In the Internet of Things, the sensors of the devices collect data from their surroundings, and the devices may also analyse this data. As an example, after you remove the bed cover, the lights dim and the e-book application on your tablet opens where you left off. The refrigerator places an order at the store based on your purchasing habits, and lights turn on and off automatically as you move from one room to another.

A home where you live in is only one part of your normal social environment. The Internet-connected devices in a smart home can be programmed to communicate with the inhabitants other data sources, too. They can have access to, for example, the inhabitant’s electronic calendar, car navigation data and social media services. When a smart home also knows our activities outside the home, it can organise things on our behalf.

At the same time as living becomes easier with the increased use of data and smart devices, data collected on the consumption habits and other life of Internet-connected households is the currency of the Internet of Things. Data sets are mined from the data generated by devices, things and people, based on which services are created and targeted back at the homes as marketing. The key questions are: who owns the data and who grants the right to use it?

5 Housekeeping in the digital era

Digitality changes consumership, and these changes are strongly linked to activity at home when the devices used in these activities are connected to the Internet.

5.1 Digitalisation changes the home and its operation

The first effects of digitalisation could be seen in the furniture of a 1990s home. Back then, computer equipment was placed on a computer desk in a separate room reserved for the purpose.

New dimensions and concepts such as remote presence, remote use, remote work, user interfaces and information network technology have been introduced in the traditional activities of a household. The household is controlled internally with the help of information networks while doing business with the outside world and purchasing services. This smart operating environment is also a consumer environment. The home is a “media home”, “smart home”, “security-monitored home”. On the other hand, the functions of the home are based on the service contracts made by its inhabitants. These contracts require an increasing amount of information security, privacy protection, and an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of a consumer.

More and more of business previously taken care of outside the home can now be handled in a smart home, such as banking, contract management and shopping, as well as social interaction now taking place online. The media devices in homes are used for publishing content, social interaction, trading and having a say in the society. Participation and the use of real-time media require the consumer to possess the necessary equipment, access to the applications and services, and technical know-how on how to use them.

While the activities of a home have become more diverse, certain basic tasks remain. Food is prepared and consumed in homes, and washing, cleaning and numerous other housekeeping tasks are performed – just like before. On the other hand, services making everyday life easier are being created for household activities.

When everything is digital, the consumers must be able to manage the products and services used at home, as well as the related data. This means the ability to assess the relevant data from many different perspectives.

5.2 Everyday tasks are becoming digital

The essential everyday housekeeping tasks can be carried out by oneself or purchased as services. These tasks include food economy and dining, clothing, cleaning, taking care of business and shopping, maintenance and repairs of household equipment, and taking care of others. Other home activities are sleeping and rest, spending leisure time, following media and social media and publishing content, socialising and hobbies, and studying and work.

Household management is a sum of many things. As the Internet of Things is entering homes device by device to make everyday activities easier, it will pose a challenge to the consumer that chooses the devices and services for the smart home. Even if we consider just the household appliances, they are difficult to manage as a whole. Manufacturers market comprehensive solutions. It is difficult for the consumers to know the compatibility and usability of devices with those of different manufacturers. In practice, the consumer is often dependent on a single manufacturer, losing the freedom of choice and the benefits of competition. However, there is still a long way to go until the home can function more independently and through a single system.

The configuration work required to take a device intended to make everyday life easier into use is still rather complex, and consumers are expected to possess good IT skills. In practice, a user account and an Internet-connected central device that includes a Bluetooth connection is often required. Today, the majority of household appliances operate on the home WLAN, but a Bluetooth connection between two devices is also used. After creating the user account, you therefore need to configure the connections of each device according to their requirements. Clear instructions are needed for these procedures, and the consumer needs to remember many passwords.

6 Smart solutions helping households

The following presents examples of solutions available for housekeeping.

6.1 Dining and food economy management

Servicification is moving grocery shopping and dining management online. An application guides your personal eating rhythm, and estimates your energy needs and nutritional intake. Smart devices allow consumers to start using an application guiding their eating habits, preparing a daily food recommendation based on consumer-created profiles. A Shopping Cart service can bring the required raw materials to your front door.

The service and its food application give the consumers the recipes for their meals for the day, the preparation instructions and a shopping list with a press of a button. The consumer prepares the meals for the day from the start, uses prepared or pre-chopped products, or eats the meal on the premises of local entrepreneurs providing food services. Other dining-related service providers can also be connected to the service, such as restaurants or cafés the services of which can be used with the same contract.

Sensors inside the devices feed data to the control centre that determines how the device must adjust itself. This allows the preparation and preservation of food and washing of dishes so that, for example, the minimum amount of energy and water is consumed. This kind of a device is not, however, connected to the Internet; instead, its smartness means the use of sensor technology.

Examples:

• The refrigerator needs more cooling power, for example when the groceries have just been put into the refrigerator, the door has been open for longer than usual, or there has been a power outage.
• Stove hoods can have a sensor that detects the amount of cooking fumes and adjusts the fan speed to a suitable level to extract the fumes.

Online kitchen appliances

When household appliances are connected to the Internet, it is said to make everyday life management simpler, allowing housekeeping work to be done quicker and more efficiently. Ovens and dishwashers are designed for consumers with features aimed at speeding up baking, cooking or dishwashing. The appliances can be controlled from anywhere with an Internet connection and an application. The appliances guide the user in food preparation in the oven or on the stove, or in how to preserve the foodstuffs in the refrigerator.

Examples of smart online devices related to food preparation

An application installed on a phone can be used to control traditional food preparation appliances such as ovens, hobs, freezers and coffee-makers. The user can, for example, remotely start the oven pre-heating or check what stage the dishwasher’s cycle is in. If necessary, the user can interrupt the cycle.

Ovens cook food automatically in accordance with the recipe chosen from the smartphone’s cookbook, as long as the raw materials have been put into the oven first. A fully automated coffee-maker can prepare just the kind of brew ordered from the application menu.

The application also has other benefits. It provides instructions and tips on using the appliance and reports malfunctions directly to the repair shop.

The applications of different appliance manufacturers can include recipes for foods in the preparation of which the application and oven guide the cook. The desired meal composition can be selected based on the size of the household. This automatically provides the user with a shopping list for grocery shopping. The application provides guidance in the food preparation and, for example. when the main course is put into the oven, the oven adjusts itself into the correct settings for the dish.

The appliances may include autonomous energy consumption and malfunction diagnostics. The appliance monitors its energy consumption and adjusts it when necessary, while saving electricity at the same time. In the case of a malfunction, the refrigerator can tell the repair mechanic what is wrong. Does the appliance also contact the repair mechanic? If ice has accumulated into a refrigerator, it can automatically melt them.

The refrigerator can send a reminder to your phone about grocery shopping. Or, if you have enabled the shopping cart service, the refrigerator can send a list of missing ingredients to your store so that the food can be delivered to your door. The refrigerator’s computer gives you access to all the cookbooks on the Internet. In an ideal situation, the refrigerator can suggest the day’s meal to you based on observations it has made on your eating habits. In addition to the refrigeration features, a refrigerator can also have other functions making everyday life easier. Upon request, the refrigerator can show you the weather, daily news and the family members’ calendar entries.

6.2 Living and cleanliness

Living in a residence as a whole involves the building technology, security, cleaning, cloths and textiles, cleaning machines and devices. Device-specific energy consumption monitoring shows how much, for example, the refrigerator, washing machine or dryer consumes energy. The system also monitors water consumption.

Building and security technology

Today, the energy efficiency of lighting is taken into consideration by using LED lamps, for example. In a smart home, lighting can be controlled wirelessly through the same system as other technology related to living in the residence. Wall switches controlling the lights can be installed wirelessly. 

The use of a video projector can be connected to the same user interface as lighting: when the video projector is enabled, the system dims the lights, lowers the curtains, and turns on the video projector and the DVD player. When the video projector is not in use, a picture is projected on the wall as a painting. The AV system is able to provide entertainment via speakers installed around the house.

There can be different heating options, such as geothermal heating and solar heating, collected with solar panels. The system decides automatically which heating method it uses at which time. The inhabitant can use the system to check whether the pump is working and control the primary heating method via the same user interface.

The security solutions can also be used via the same system. It will give an alarm if, for example, the leak sensors underneath the washing machine detect moisture, the motion detectors detect a burglary or the fire alarms detect smoke. The external doors can be unlocked and locked with a remote key connected to the system. The remote key can also be used to switch the rest of the building technology into present or away modes.

Housekeeping

Textiles and surface materials possess smart features. Floor surfaces, for example, can be developed to accumulate no dirt.

Smart textiles receive information from the environment and react to it. In practice, sensors or electronics are embedded into the products, or the products use smart materials the characteristics of which change according to changes in the environment. Wearable technology can also be connected to the Internet and various services.

The devices guide the user in washing the clothes in the correct manner in the washing machine and dryer. The washing machine is informed on how dirty the laundry is. If the clothes have been worn only a couple of times, the machine uses less detergent, water and time. If the clothes are dirtier than usual or have a specific type of dirt, the machine is informed and it will wash the clothes more thoroughly.

The washing machine and the dryer are connected to each other, allowing the dryer to receive information on what kind of laundry is coming from the washing machine and to automatically set the suitable drying cycle.

There are also smart robot vacuum cleaners. You can download an application for them from the app stores of the different systems. The applications can be used to give a cleaning order to the robot vacuum cleaners from anywhere, and make the device to start working and cleaning the floors at home.

The applications also provide other information on the robot’s movements. For example, they include a history on when, how long, and how many square metres the robot has cleaned. They can even include function where the robot vacuum cleaner draws a map and shows the area it has cleaned.

6.3 Home information management and use of services

The data of a smart home and its inhabitants, such as photographs, is saved in cloud storage – and it would be difficult to manage without cloud services.

When the data or software of the home are in the cloud, they are not stored on the household’s own computers or devices; instead, they are stored on the servers of the company providing the cloud service. The inhabitants of the home or those who have been granted access can access their data on computers and mobile devices over the Internet almost from anywhere and at any time. In practice, the cloud means a network of servers providing the service.

Services, software and data is offered to households through the cloud. E-mail is the most familiar cloud service. In it, the e-mails are stored on the service provider’s server from where they can be read over the Internet on laptops, tablets and smartphones, or downloaded to the device.

The smart home’s electronic calendars, social media applications, Office 365, OneDrive, Dropbox and other various services intended for storing or transferring files and data work in the cloud.

The data of many wearable devices monitoring well-being is also stored in the cloud, allowing you to, for example, track your daily number of steps on smart devices or, for example, a laptop computer.

Automatic back-ups are also often part of a cloud service.  You can access the data as long as you remember to be systematic in managing your account names and passwords. Cloud services are marketed with the promise that your data and software are safe even if your devices break down or are stolen.

In a smart home, cloud services are used in information sharing or household-internal task allocation. When the files and software are in the cloud, they can be viewed and used by all the people who have been granted access. Text documents shared in Google Drive, for example, can be edited by several different people at the same time, even if the family members are on different sides of the globe.

For most households, cloud services act as a storage. The photographs and videos stored in the service can be viewed by anyone with access to the picture folders of the cloud service. You can make your photographs and videos public or protect them with a password.

It is important for consumers to assess their data, their privacy and protection needs when choosing the cloud service. Videos uploaded to YouTube, for example, are online, and you may wish to make them public, in which case the content does not need to be protected, only the user account. When it comes to personal e-mails, private photographs and documents, or software, they must be protected with a username and a password.

If you need even stronger protection, you can select two-step identification for the cloud services, so that logging in from a new device, for example, is only possible by entering a code sent to your phone number.

One of the key questions of a smart home is can the consumer choose whether data is uploaded to a cloud service or whether it remains fully in the consumer’s possession. When taking cloud services into use in a smart home and making the contracts, you should take into account:

• the reliability and longevity of the service;
• the information security of the cloud service;
• the contract terms and pricing of the cloud service; and
• the home country of the cloud service, as this is significant with regard to privacy protection legislation.

Cloud services enable remote work and study.

6.4 Housekeeping

The digitalisation of banking services means that both banks and financial technology companies are becoming service providers.

“In the 2020s, making payments has become a task for the applications and systems; as a result, ‘we’ no longer make payments. Smart solutions handle the payments on our behalf with fewer disruptions, more smoothly and with an eye on fluctuations in our ability to pay.”

Today, banking services involve a basic bank account and linked means of using the account (such as a debit card or online banking codes), possibility of withdrawing cash, carrying out payment transactions and electronic means of identification.

Banks offer many services via the online bank and an Internet connection. You can pay invoices or check your account transactions in the online bank. The service is based on an online banking contract made with the bank, under which the customer receives the codes and passwords for online banking via a computer or a smart device.

The bank’s basic payment account service, which is a strong electronic identification service, can only be denied from a customer who has no personal identification number or is not registered in the Population Information System. In these cases, the bank must offer a more limited electronic identification method, only suitable for using the basic payment account and the service connected to it.

Banks are no longer the only instance offering payment methods. Changes in technology and legislation are engendering new kinds of operating models and new companies that offer so-called payment initiation services and account information services.

Instant payment is a feature of smartphone applications that can be used not only for credit transfers between private persons but also for paying at shops and in online stores. The idea is that the money is transferred from one bank account to another in real time even if the payer and the recipient are customers of different banks.

A digital wallet can be used on a smart device. The user can download applications for it, enabling various payment methods. In the same way as a traditional wallet, a digital wallet can contain many different kinds of payment cards with different features.

Payment applications for smart devices are constantly being developed towards real-time payments. In the future, a consumer’s mobile wallet can be an application or a set of applications that integrates the consumer’s choice, comparison, purchase, receipt and guarantee into one place.

Electronic payment methods include:

• Payment on a mobile subscription invoice
• This payment method can be used to pay for various products or services, and the purchases are charged on the mobile subscription invoice.         
• Payment application (payment applications are applications downloaded to a smartphone, allowing the transfer of money from the payer to the recipient.)
• Store or service specific storing of payment card details
• Usage or time based charges made based on stored information
•  Contactless payment (contactless payment is a method in which small purchases are paid for by showing a payment card or a mobile phone equipped with NFC contactless payment functionality to a point-of-sale terminal supporting contactless payment.)                       

Consumers can make contactless payments using any of the following means of payment: A debit card, contactless payment application on a phone, or a wristband.

• A debit card or a combination card that is equipped with contactless payment functionality. The maximum payment of such contactless payment, where a PIN code or signature is not required, is EUR 25.
• A telephone that has the features needed to make contactless payments.
• A wristband that may be used in various events, such as festivals. The money linked to a wristband can usually be controlled through an online application.

For security reasons, contactless payment terminals may occasionally require the consumer to enter their PIN code or another access code before paying.

Money can be transferred to a payment service via a bank transfer or a credit card. Payment services are a good option if you do not want to give your credit card details to a vendor or if you do not have a credit card.

A consumer can pay for a purchase through a Payment Initiation Services Provider (PISP) directly from a payment account if the account can be accessed online. The Payment Initiation Service Provider’s access to the consumer’s accounts requires the consumer’s express consent and, as a rule, the PISP must identify the consumer in accordance with the Payment Services Act’s requirements concerning strong identification when the payment initiation services are used.

6.4.1 Applications for monitoring home economy

There are several applications available for smartphones and tablets, intended to make it easier to manage your personal finances.

Mobile applications for monitoring home economy include the Finnish-language Penno and Pivo. Penno is specifically designed for budgeting, i.e. the monitoring and analysis of the user’s expenditure and income. It was created by the Takuu Foundation. Pivo is a mobile payment application developed by the OP Group, and it also includes offers targeted at the consumer in addition to home economy management features.

In the decisions related to the use, selection and paying of the home economy management applications, it is not irrelevant to whom we hand over our account details, identifying information and big data on our consumption habits. Payment applications are handy, but one should not let mere technology blind oneself. Before giving out personal information, one should consider:

• what is it that I am downloading?
• where am I downloading it from?
•  for what am I going to use the downloaded application?

If you are unable to answer any of the above-mentioned questions, you should consider whether the service is just a fun addition or actually necessary for handling your everyday finances.

6.5 Communications, comfort and living together

The use of social media at home is seen both as a threat and a possibility. Media states that “Social media can help prevent the loneliness of elderly people living at home” but, on the other hand, that “This is how social media can cause depression”. It is difficult to valuate all changes brought about by social media as better or worse. After all, things are done differently today than before.

Traditionally, families have been thought to talk about their day when sitting down to have dinner. Today, family members may well share their daily news in a family group discussion on WhatsApp or Messenger. The real-time catching up has also been possible using text messages in the days before smartphone instant messaging services. Unlike text messages, instant messaging services are free of charge and allow the creation of groups.

On the other hand, the message is not always specifically meant for the family or a certain friend; the highlight of the day is shared visually on Instagram or Snapchat, or as a story on Facebook. The discussion about the event takes place under the published image or story, and does not necessarily continue face to face.

In prior decades, shared family moments could include, in addition to dinner, watching a TV quiz show or a family-friendly TV series. Today, the applications of the various TV channels and video streaming services allow family members to watch the programmes on their smart devices when they choose. Only a few people rush in front of the TV set at a certain time any longer; instead, most prefer to withdraw somewhere and find some peace and quiet at the time that suits them best.

Previously, it was typical that children spent their free time with the neighbourhood children. Now, in addition to the children messaging and agreeing what to do between themselves, the guardians of the friends utilise the group feature of instant messaging services. In a group, it is easy to ask for skating or sandbox company for one’s child.

Social media has transformed interaction with the neighbours in other ways than just asking for playmates for one’s children. The Facebook flea stores and Neighbourhood Help Facebook groups may even have made lives enclosed within one’s own residence more active. Social media lowers the threshold makes communication simpler.

In everyday life management, social media may provide inspiration, but it may also create pressure and jealousy. When you just cannot figure out what to make for lunch, social media is full of food bloggers, vloggers and Instagrammers.  Today, pretty much the only challenge in finding a suitable recipe is the multitude of choices. Costume photos, just renovated flats and pet dogs may also provide inspiration, but they may also engender the feeling of missing something or being insufficient as a person. The consumer’s media skills as part of everyday life management skills become emphasised.

Good practices, or models of a new era, for raising and taking care of one’s children are being sought. Offline time after 10 p.m. and social media free months have been suggested as limitations for the use of social media.  The glut of device use has been reined in by, for example, the “One device at a time” challenge, which encourages people to avoid browsing one’s phone while watching a show on a laptop.  The rhythm of interaction has changed, and it requires effort to break free of it. The time management of a household is linked with the use of media and entertainment.

6.6 Mobility is becoming servicificated and based on digital infrastructure

Mobility is one of the functions and criteria of a household. Digitalisation is significantly changing mobility. It is likely that in the future, transportation can be done in a self-driving car. The car drives based on sensors and location, and the driver is replaced by object perception, or machine vision, route planning and the actual driving including steering and braking. Cars will become the most important IoT terminal device that collects 4,000 gigabits of data each day with its sensors and instruments, states an information processing science expert in a magazine interview.

Travel chain co-operation is aiming at smoother public transportation. The Whim mobility application recently launched in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area is an example of this: it allows you to place orders and make payments for public transport, taxis and rental cars. This is travel chain co-operation between the cities and commercial operators in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, offering a mobility service to consumers at a monthly fee.

The objective is to offer car owners alternatives that allow them to combine public transport and various car services according to the user’s own needs. Mobility services include public transport, car, bicycle and transport services. The aim is to make mobility as seamless and easy as possible.

The common term for this is Mobility as a Service, or MaaS.

Mobility as a Service can be thought of as all-in-one mobility packages or a “transport Spotify”, into which users can include everything they find they need. For example, the operator of the selected mobility services creates a mobility package for the user at a monthly fee, based on the user’s choices and the contract.

Households are serviced by “mobility operators”; this term is not official or established, but it is used here to make it easier to understand the whole. “Mobility operators” (who can be mere brokers with respect to the “travel service”) will have the opportunity to conduct business on behalf of the consumer. In other words, the consumer also issues a letter of attorney in the contract made.  

The law separates the services as follows:

1. transport service is the professional transportation of persons or goods;
2. brokering service is the brokering of transport for a fee, however, not a service that only brokers the service provider’s own transport services, nor a package trip referred to in the Travel Package Act (1079/1994);
3. traffic service is a public or private traffic-related service and a service combination offered to the public or for private use; and
4. mobility service is traffic service and directly connected brokering service, information service and parking service, and other support services.

The service operator combines mobility services in accordance with the customer’s wishes and then makes an offer to the customer for the package. Such choices and contracts can be made by consumers in the future using, for example, a mobile application or an ‘app’.

Travel chains mean, for example, service combinations such as taxi-train-bicycle or bicycle-public transport-rental car, for which the consumer pays a single price and receives a single ticket.

Traffic always requires infrastructure. In the creation of travel chains, this is much more than a digital description of fixed structures. The infrastructure and data used in mobility is changing data of traffic, mobility, location and conditions. The data serves the optimisation and staging of the transports.

In order for it to be possible for a mobility operator to combine the existing mobility services, the current transport operators (such as the railways, taxis, local transport operators) must offer open interfaces for their timetable data, real-time fleet location data and payment systems.

For consumers, Mobility as a Service could be implemented as a website or a mobile application, where they can choose from several different options on how to move from the starting point to the end point according to their preferences and as flexibly as possible. If they so desire, the consumers may also specify a number of kilometres, for example, for which they need a taxi or a rental car each month.

 

Mobility services that could be included in the monthly package are public transport, rail transport, bus transport, taxi transport and other taxi applications, demand responsive public transport, city bicycles and other rental bicycles, rental cars and city cars, shared use cars, leasing cars, parking, car bnb (Air Bnb for motorists), ridesharing, air traffic, maritime traffic, transport of goods, and other service layers such as shopping carts.

Mobility as a Service is seen as an important part of sustainable development. The effects of the servicification of transport are seen to be a reduction in traffic jams, parking problems and emissions. At the same time the service offering is increasing, consumers face the challenge of identifying and finding the most suitable forms of transport for themselves and agreeing on their use and prices.

In this solution, the consumer is offered various mobility services under one brand for various daily needs.  At the same time, the consumer is offered freedom of choice. When the services form an ecosystem, this also benefits the service providers, as MaaS gives them a quicker access to customer groups.

Personalised mobile applications close to the consumer enable various rating systems that provide consumers with an easier access to information on the service level of individual drivers or rides. In the rating system, both the customer and the driver can rate each other.

Ownership is increasingly migrating towards a car being used through various service providers (“From ownership to usership”).

Collaborative economy is strongly on the rise, and an increasing number of people are prepared to share their ride with others needing a ride. Examples of this are:

• Ridesharing, regular “lifting” with another person, for example while commuting
• Car sharing, or direct loaning from another private person or a company that may be aided by a platform or an application. The renter can be either a single user or, for example, a housing company that acquires a car for shared use.

Mobility as a Service wishes to make easy and quick mobile payments possible; this is a modern and time-saving method of managing one’s mobility. Mobile payments also secure the payment to the service provider, as this can prevent, for example, ride-and-run cases.

In sparsely populated areas, buses drive almost empty each day, and many people enjoy the service level and security of their own cars. As ordering a trip becomes demand-based, new kinds of business open up for taxis, for example. This could increase taxi usage and retain the service level in sparsely populated regions as the markets become freer.

7 Management of a smart home is based on contracts

Any household object can be an Internet-connected smart device – household appliances, toys, floors and beds. When you buy a device, you also buy a service. There are several contracts on the background of the devices and services of a smart home. They are also mainly online.

Before accepting the contract, consumers have the freedom of choosing between services and asking for quotes. However, the freedom of choice between the multitude of different devices and services is only illusionary. If only smart devices are available, the consumer has no choice but to buy an Internet-connected smart devices.

7.1 Making contracts is a consumer skill

The smart devices of the home are not personal in the same way as a smartphone. Smart refrigerators, smart washing machines and other smart devices are purchased for shared use at home. The inhabitants must agree with each other on with whom and under what terms the shared contracts are made.

Smart devices can be purchased individually or as a package containing several devices and services. Before accepting the contract, you should determine the compatibility of the new service with the other devices of the home.

Making choices and managing the thicket of contracts form a part of everyday life management. The consumer faces the following questions:

• What things should I make a contract on?
• What is the size of my monthly budget?
• What things can I afford?
• What will be the consequence of a service affecting my everyday life will suddenly stop working?

A contract is a commitment to the terms of use. You must first be aware of your needs and usage habits. Only then can you evaluate whether the smart device and service are suitable for you.

The price and payment terms of the contract are key issues. Based on the contract, the fees are either automatically charged from your bank account or you will receive an invoice. 

Money is not necessarily charged for the use of services; data can also be a medium of exchange. The contracts should state whether the smart device collects usage data that the manufacturer utilises in its analytics and marketing. With the help of the collected data, the manufacturers can also create devices that are more individual and meet the consumer’s needs better.

The contract for a standardised product and a service is the same to everyone. The contracts for personalised, constantly transforming services are more complex; for example, a refrigerator that knows your eating habits.

The consumer should check the contract who is responsible for information security and service updates. It is also important to the consumer to find out how, when and at what price the contract can be terminated and the service or product replaced with another. Fixed-term contracts are their own, special case in this respect, as they cannot be amended or terminated during their period of validity. The consumer must possess the skill to interpret the contractual terms and conditions.

7.2 Contracts are often complex

Both young and more experiences consumers may need outside help with complex contracts.

The following is an example of a typical condition customers must commit to in many situations while taking a service into use: “By logging into and using the service, you state that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of use and agree with them, including the licence agreements and the privacy policy, and all other terms and conditions possible stated on our website.”

Consumers are not always aware of the contents of the terms and conditions of the services they use. They have many factors that reduce transparency and openness. Examples of practices related to contractual terms and conditions:

• the contractual terms and conditions may be long and difficult to understand;
• the terms and conditions may include vague wording or technical or legal jargon that is difficult to understand by an average consumer;
• the terms and conditions may be hidden in long documents, or require the consumer to click or browse through several links or pages;
• the terms and conditions essential to consumers are in a small or hard to read font;
• consumers may be overloaded with information, making it difficult to pinpoint the essential sections of the terms and conditions; and
• consumers cannot necessarily peruse the terms and conditions before logging into the service.

This lack of transparency and openness may cause financial and non-financial damages to consumers. But how could the situation be improved? What changes to the terms and conditions would help consumers evaluate the consequences of accepting the contract and make conscious decisions?

7.3 Household as a subscriber to smart products, services and content

When households utilise the possibilities of digitalisation, both a device and service is usually required. The seller has a responsibility to inform the customer of the interoperability of the equipment, services and technology. The seller must provide customers with clear, comprehensive and up-to-date information on the device features and any limitations to the availability of related services.

Digital services are often bought through distance selling, or a trade where the buyer and the seller are not present at the same time. The trade and the marketing before it take place fully digitally.

The following presents links to pages with information provided by different authorities on consumer protection related to digital products and services and their purchasing:

• Telephone and broadband subscriptions
• Buying and selling a television
  
• Electricity contracts
• Online, mail order and telephone sales
  

8 Privacy protection and information security of a smart home

The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority wrote the section on the privacy protection and information security of a smart home.

Users of smart devices and applications should be allowed to know what data is collected of them and for what purpose. Is user data sold to other parties? Users should also be given the chance to prevent the collection, storage and distribution of their data, if they so desire. This should not prevent the use of the device for the purpose it was purchased for.

It would be best if private data were to be collected only based on need. The objective could be, for example, the securing and development of the health services of a municipality or a city. Data collection just in case or for reselling purposes does not help the device user. When data is collected, stored and kept smartly, the risk of identity theft is reduced, should the private data contained by a smart device end up in criminal hands.

For more information on information security, see the website of the data protection ombudsman. 

When a household purchases a smart device to make everyday life easier, it must not only provide benefits; it must also be secure and easy to use. Consumers should demand information security for IoT products as a feature taken for granted, based on which they make the final purchasing decision.

Information security aims at the following objectives:

• Confidentiality of data. Viewing the data is prevented from parties who might use the data against its owner.
• Integrity of the data and the service. Uncontrolled changes to the data are prevented. Information technology does what it should.
• Availability of the data and the service. The data and IT services are available to those entitled to use them when they need.

Information security is maintained through information security controls, or procedures and technology. If the IT users have a great trust in each other, formal information security controls are unnecessary. However, IoT products are, as a rule, connected to information networks, and most of the time, they require Internet to work correctly. There are always parties on the Internet you cannot trust.

Criminals typically attempt to violate the information security of households. They do not care who becomes their victim and what the victims use the information technology and IoT for. Criminals search for defects in commonly used information technology that they can abuse. They use software that automatically map devices accessible over the Internet and attempt to use known exploits in order to break into them. A vulnerable Internet-connected IoT device is broken into within around 60 seconds of the device being switched on.

An information security violation may result in the following consequences to an inhabitant of a smart home:

• The smart device stops working. It cannot necessarily be restored into working order.
• The smart device data is leaked to the Internet, which violates the inhabitant’s privacy. For example, anyone can view the video feed from the inhabitant’s hacked webcam.
• The smart device works slower than usual or does not perform some functions.
• Criminals blackmail the inhabitant for money in exchange for returning control of the smart device.
• The inhabitant’s telecommunications company contacts them in order to determine which of the inhabitant’s subscriptions causes the harmful outgoing traffic. If the inhabitant is unable to eliminate the cause of the harmful traffic or the device sending it, the telecommunications company can block traffic to the subscription.

Criminals may access consumer devices if the information security of the home devices is not taken care of. The most common neglects that are the responsibility of the consumer include: The factory passwords of the devices have not been changed, or the users change them to weak, easily guessable passwords.

The user should change all default passwords to strong, unique passwords, but not all users do this. This means that there are a lot of devices around the world that can be controlled with the same password. Criminals find out the default passwords by reading the user manuals of the devices or by analysing the firmware of the devices. Once the criminals know the password to the control user interface, they can do whatever they like with the device.

Criminals use software that automatically tries short and common passwords (such as “password” or “abc123”) to login into the device’s control user interface.

Only rarely do IoT devices update their software automatically; usually, the user must at least press the “update software now” button in the device’s control user interface. It is difficult for users to find out when they should update the device software. When criminals find out how to exploit a vulnerability, they can at worst do anything they want to with the device.

The device software may also have known vulnerabilities, but the device manufacturers do not release corrective updates. The manufacturers may also patch some of the vulnerabilities but leave others unpatched. Criminals may even sneak in malware into the device software at the factory. They may bribe a factory employee to insert malware into the software, from which it is copied to all devices manufactured at the factory, or they may break into the factory’s information system and add the malware themselves.
(The contents of the previous section were produced by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority.)

8.1 Checklists for information security at home 

Before you buy a smart device

• Choose a product with a manufacturer who promises to release software updates fixing vulnerabilities. All software has vulnerabilities. It is important what is done to vulnerabilities after they are found.
• Choose a product that only has the functions and features you need. Consumers are greatly tempted to poorly protect unnecessary features. Furthermore, unnecessary features needlessly increase the risk of vulnerabilities.
• Choose a product for which you are provided with understandable operating instructions.
• Consider what information network you connect the device to. A separate Internet connection and an intranet separate from the home’s regular Internet connection for IoT devices could be a good solution. This way, a possible information security violation in the other network would not disrupt the use of the other network.

Instructions for persons taking a smart device into use:

• Read the user instructions. Follow them.
• If the manufacturer has not intended the device to be connected directly to the Internet, do not do so. Connect the smart device to a network where there is a firewall device between it and the Internet.
• Change all the passwords you can. If you trust your family members and visitors to your home, you can write the new passwords down on notes and tape them to the devices, for example. A more secure way that does require more care is to use software designed for keeping passwords (so-called password vault or password manager software).
• Update the device software in accordance with the user instructions. If it is possible to configure the device to update itself automatically in the future, do so.
• Disable all features of the device you do not use.
• If the smart product includes an online service, also change its passwords and make sure that its protections are enabled.

Carry out the service and maintenance procedures related to use

• Regularly check for updates for the device software. If you have configured the device to update itself automatically, check that there have been no errors in the updates. If automatic updates are not possible, install the available updates regularly.
• Take any messages given by the device seriously. If the device notifies you of a malfunction or an error, find out its cause.
• Manufacturer support for devices ends at some point. At the latest, take the device out of use when the manufacturer no longer offers updates to its software.

Clear a smart device of data when you abandon it

• Copy any data you still need.
• If the device has memory chips that can be removed by hand, remove them. If you wish, you can reuse the memory chips elsewhere or destroy them in an information-secure manner.

You should be particularly careful when purchasing smart devices intended for children. Certain toys, for example, may record words spoken to them and send the data to the Internet for analysis so that the toy seems to react to being spoken to. This kind of system can be implemented securely and respecting privacy, but unfortunately often both have been found to be lacking.

In smart devices parents can use to, for example, locate their children, security and privacy protection must have been proven through testing.

• Information security now! 
• Get a grip of the means of protecting the Internet of Things
• These ingredients make a functional IoT
• MyPen: We must come up with rules for IoT
• Information security instructions and tips
• Wirelessly but securely On the information security of wireless local area networks (pdf)
• Information security tips for a more secure use of personal cloud storage devices (pdf) 
• Online explorer’s toolbox – Act securely and responsibly (pdf) 
• The safe use of services 

9 Learning to live in a smart home

The greatest challenge of teaching, education and lifelong learning is that some people may be in the danger of becoming marginalised if they do not possess sufficient readiness for communications and everyday life management required by an AI-based information society.

An inhabitant of a smart home encounters addictive and tempting products and services in online stores, social media communities, content and entertainment services, food services and information retrieval services, and we are still as susceptible to influence as ever before.

What do we teach about the operating of an artificial intelligence or being online, and what kinds of models of online behaviour and consumption do we give to our children? Children need to be prepared to operate in the digital work, because there are no digital natives who can learn everything on their own.

9.1 Family upbringing in digital everyday life

Where is readiness for everyday life born? People have a deeply rooted idea of home-related matters being learned at home and through the culture of the home. It is the duty and right of parents and guardians to bring up their children and to take care of family members needing help. We have a tradition of upbringing that has guided us for millennia. Everyday skills have been learned at home, by doing. All this works well when societal changes are slow.

In its part, the school system has taken care of teaching new skills or skills needed outside the home. The basic idea of home economy as a subject has been that the foundations have already been learned during everyday life, and the teaching of home economy has been built on everyday experiences.

According to many studies, the long-term favourable development in the well-being of Finnish children has plateaued after the depression of the 1990s. The financial situation of a family may cause the children to become marginalised from a lifestyle and activities considered to be normal. To a child, his or her own consumption means social power. Children buy, exchange and give each other different things. The reciprocality and terms of trade are a part of playtime communities and groups of friends. If the importance of consumption increases the lack of opportunities, such as a child not having a digital presence, marginalises him or her.

At the same time, home upbringing opportunities grow scarcer. Less and less time is available for upbringing children and just spending time with them. On the other hand, there is a consideration of whether the idea of how much time one should spend with one’s children.  Remote work enables work to be performed at home, and overtime work performed at home without compensation has also increased. This can eat up time and emotional presence from the family, leaving the children spending more and more time alone or with just each other.

The desires and needs of a child making choices in the digital era are observed, and the data is used in involving the children, creating desires and steering their activities.

Commercial actors do not aim to restrain the desires of children; on the contrary, they aim to contribute to them. The relationships between children and companies also give cause to ethics considerations. In digital everyday life, the parents have not yet established a fully formed operating model nor a psychological tradition of upbringing.  Every adult and educator must, to the best of their ability, deliberate what the child’s everyday life with a smart device is like, and decide what kind of consumership to steer their children.

Technical aids are involved in upbringing and caretaking; they are helpful, but their use requires ethics considerations and responsibility. Monitoring based on (location) data and parent’s remote presence have been created to support the care and guidance of children. Various monitoring devices have also become a part of the lives of elderly people and others requiring care, improving their safety.

Childhood and everyday home life are changing because the society is changing. Digital games, the Web and phones open up a whole new playground for children on which they can move outside adult supervision. At the same time digital media give children access to content they need help to process, they also enable keeping in contact with their parents and seeking safety.

9.2 Child’s growth and development in smart everyday life and environment

With respect to home upbringing, we should consider what are our values guiding upbringing in a digitalising world. What kind of an adult do we wish our children to grow into?  What kinds of goals do we have for our children?

As digitalisation creates uncertainty to parents and educators, it is necessary to emphasise the concept of consumer education preparing one for a good life, its objective and best practices.

Digitalisation has changed and will, for a couple of years yet, continue to change the everyday life at home to such an extent that it is not evident who or what takes care of the children and the home. Media, constantly present in the everyday lives of children through smart devices, is one of the educators in the digital era.

Basic caretaking changes as devices can be used to monitor the child’s sleep, eating, outdoor activities, etc. New devices intended for childcare and entertaining children are constantly being developed.

Activities previously taking place outside the home are increasingly performed at home. These include shopping, financial management, and meeting new people. Adults must assess what influences and models of smart technology children should be protected from. Parents and educators must be able to assess how the child’s development could be supported in a manner suitable to the child’s age group, what things are taught to the child at what age, and what kinds of experiences are arranged for the child. This assessment should result in an idea of which smart devices are offered at which age.

Parents and educators have varying attitudes towards digitalisation. Some want to give the latest devices and content to the children as early as possible, while others want to safeguard the traditional childhood, free of digitalisation. It is necessary to consider the following questions from the perspective of upbringing and education – exactly as always before: What are useful skills in a digital society and how can children be trained in them? When everyday life skills are being taught, it must be considered what kind of housework and everyday tasks prepare the child to manage when they are adults. Digitalisation even affects manners, that are largely learned from the examples shown by adults. The co-operation between the school and the home is also online, so the family must agree on how the child’s schoolwork is monitored.

What upbringing tools are available in the digitalised world? How can one encourage children to act and behave “correctly” in it? How to act when a child behaves dangerously or in an ill-mannered way in the digital operating environment?

The well-being of children has been studied using narrative analysis methods. Four factors that improve the well-being of children have been identified in the narratives of children; they are:

• the relationships between children;
• a diverse and rousing operating and learning environment;
• sensitive adults; and
• listening to the suggestions of the children and taking them into consideration in activities.

When the upbringing culture for the digital era is created, the well-being of children could be examined through these four dimensions.

9.3 Changing consumer education and teaching of consumer skills at school

In consumer education, the following six topics have been considered to be relevant areas of competence since the 2010s: 

 

• sustainable consumption;
• digital literacy (previously: media and technological literacy);
• home economy management;
• consumer rights and responsibilities;
• financial skills; and 
• commercial communications literacy.

Source: Kuluttajakompetenssien oppiminen – kuluttajakasvatuksen strategia, Ehdotus kuluttajakasvatuksen tavoitteiksi ja sisällöiksi TemaNord 2010:568

According to van Deursen and van Dijk, the seven core digital skills are technical, information management, communications, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving. The related contextual skills are ethical awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, self-direction and lifelong learning.

As homes become smart, the aforementioned skill categories become intertwined. You can no longer even mention consumer skills or everyday skills without including digital skills, because our consumer skills are based on the ability to use digital technologies. For this reason, it must be possible to use and practice digital technologies at school during home economy and everyday life management lessons, and the teachers must have the means to teach their use.

According to studies, the usage frequency of digital technologies and experience particularly improve operational usage skills. This leads to the conclusion that if the use of AI-based devices designed for different household functions is practised at home or during the home economy class at school, this will prepare the children to operate in a smart home. However, everyday life management is more extensive than this. The skills of living together also require social and knowledge skills. For this reason, there still remains a need for consumer education for the digital era.

In being a consumer, mere skill in the use of tools is not enough, because a consumer living in a smart home also needs information management and media literacy skills, negotiating and argumentation skills, financial skills, consumer’s legal and ethical awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, self-direction and life-long learning.

When consumer skills are taught, it is beneficial to regard operating in a smart home via the aforementioned six skills and apply them to the three stages of the purchasing process a) before the purchase, b) during the purchase and c) after the purchase. The stages of the purchasing process are presented in more detail on the website. 

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