Anemone
Hide your home from hackers
Disconnect your home from the internet when you're asleep or away.
Gone like the wind
The Anemone physically disconnects your network cables
Make clever cuts
With the ethernet version you can disconnect only specific network devices.
Make a schedule
Schedule your home to disconnect when it's bedtime, or automatically when nobody is home.
Avoid tracking
When you disconnect you may be given a fresh IP address, making it harder to track your online behaviour.
Why it matters
Many smart home devices have started to use Wifi to communicate with their cloud servers. This may be convenient for the producers, but it's a risk to you. Wifi devices can autonomously connect to the internet and send data there directly, giving you very little insight and control. That's why Candle devices do not use wifi to communicate with the Candle controller.
The Anemone can lower your risk by limiting if and when your other wifi devices that you may already own can send data.
It also improves security. Smart devices that use wifi have proven to be an easier and popular target for hackers. A smart home is very difficult to hack while it's not connected to the internet.
Hackers target Wifi devices
To cut costs, Internet of Things devices often have poor security, and may not be updated to the latest security standards. That's why today we hear about hacked smart devices daily.
Hackers have even created tools that only attempt to take over your devices at night. They do this to avoid you noticing strange behaviour during the hack.
Most smart devices send data to the cloud
Many smart devices will (unnecessarily) transmit the data directly to their company servers. Once there, your data could reveal intimate details about your life, such as your sleeping habits and your travel patterns, which in turn can lead to conclusions about your health or other risk factors.
Candle's solution is to store data in your own home instead. When you're away from home, your phone simply connects to your home instead of some company cloud.
Your data comes back to you
Once data is in the cloud, most companies share insights they derive from it - or even the actual raw data - with third parties such as advertisers. Some might even allow them into the device itself.
From the advertisers, data may travel further into the hands of databrokers, and from there into algorithms that judge your insurance, healthcare, visum, loan or job applications.
Making the Anemone
Relay
Connect the relay's IN pin to signal pin 4.
Plug in the RF-Nano Arduino
Plug the RF-Nano into its socket. The USB connector should be on the outside of the main board.
Open the Candle Manager
Select the Candle Manager from the menu, and follow the steps. It will help you upload the code to your new creation.
Add your new device
Visit the Candle controller and on the things page press the (+) icon. Your new creation should be available. Optionally, select which of its properties you'd like to have in the spotlight. Click on "save" to complete the proces.