I think that connecting devices directly to the Internet is great nonsense and great danger to our privacy and security.

Still it would make sense to have an possibility to connect them to local network.

local network = internet

No, it is rather:

Internet = Second party controlled server,

Local network = Your own controlled server.

Your local network is airgapped, then?

Because otherwise it's still internet-connected. If nothing else, the first person connecting to it with a cell phone is enough.

Yes, sure, but there is big difference between leaking your private data out of your home and break in.

One great feature would be to warn someone that they left the house with the stove on.

Certainly nothing is made better automatically, but there are a lot of features you can design and build.

That's solving the wrong end of the problem, which is the big problem of half of these devices.

For example, Halogen hobs turn off if there are no pans for a period of time. Much cleaner solution.

Ignore the junk that doesn't add value. You're right -- it's noise, and there's a lot of it right now.

Identify the specific long-term opportunities where the added technology can actually give users a superpower: a valuable ability they didn't have before. That's what we've tried to do with Pantelligent. (Disclaimer: co-founder / https://www.pantelligent.com/ ) For us, it's the ability for home chefs of any skill level [democratization] to cook any frying pan-based meals [versatility] perfectly [quality] every time [repeatability], even when you're multitasking in the kitchen [convenience]. If that isn't adding user value by adding a bit of connected intelligence to an everyday home appliance, then I don't know what is!

It adds value, just not for the consumer or user. Note that I didn't say owner as this internet of thing is actually the internet of someone else's things, typically the manufacturer. Think apple devices meets with giving away ownership and control of your data to a third party provider, the current obvious is facebook.

All this seem to be the logical next step in the evolution of corporation trying to exploit the internet for their own needs and turn it into a massive surveillance tool. Something that started quite a while ago on the day advertising invited itself to the party.

I can see some limited benefits, like applying inventory tracking tech to refrigerators. But for the most part you need to be there to refill the device etc.

I work in the foodservice equipment sector at the moment and there's a huge demand from the manufacturers to add upstream monitoring to their devices.

This is mostly motivated by the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) guidelines that the US FDA has set in place. Someday that designation will change from "suggested" to "mandatory".

The equipment requirements are pretty large. Restaurants need devices to track refrigeration temperatures, cooking/holding/production temperatures and times, equipment status, check probes, and lots more. Eventually most of the devices in a kitchen will be IoT connected in some form or another. Many of the larger chains will also want this data pushed upstream to their servers for overall safety monitoring and, eventually, other "big data" benefits from seeing store production in near real-time.