Lighting, the music system, cameras, thermostats, door locks, lawn mowers, shutters - all can be networked together in a smart home and controlled using a smartphone or tablet.

The convenience is great, but what about data security? Where exactly does your data go and how safe are the connections between smart home devices?

There are several ways to network home devices. One is known as a bridge. Behind this bridge is a kind of distributor for networked devices.

“The bridge then connects one or more smart home devices to the internet,” says smart home specialist Timo Brauer.

"The smart home devices in turn communicate encrypted with the bridge via Bluetooth or special smart home standards such as Zigbee or Z-Wave."

Another way to do the same thing is to use purely local networks, for which you usually need a router.

“Devices are only used in the home network and are not connected to the internet at all," says Internet of Things expert Arne Arnold.

"The advantage is the very high level of data protection, the disadvantage is the lower level of convenience, because an IP camera, for example, cannot be used remotely," Arnold says.

A third possibility is purely cloud-based systems.

“With these smart home networks, the user data and configuration data are on external servers,” says smart home reporter Joerg Geiger from Chip magazine. "This applies, for example, to systems such as Apple Homekit, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa."

How secure the data is depends on both the user and the device manufacturer. "In principle, encryption should be used wherever data flows," Geiger says.

So far there has been no uniform technical standard when it comes to smart home devices, which made optimal protection difficult.

However, that looks set to change. Practically all of the major manufacturers and internet companies have come together in the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) to devise a new standard called Matter.

In addition to boosting security and reliability, the standard should ensure that all smart devices can work together, regardless of manufacturer.

“With the devices themselves, security depends on the firmware updates. If these are not carried out regularly, security gaps arise,” according to Geiger.

With older devices in particular this can be a problem if the manufacturer discontinues support.

In any case, the software on your router should always be kept up-to-date and the device should also be protected by a strong password. In addition, a separate password should be used for each service.

Consumers should only buy smart home devices from well-known providers. These manufacturers usually provide regular security updates and as well you should be able to establish where their servers are based.

With good smart home products, consumers can also check and set which data is being transmitted. The user interface can often be used to set whether internet access is allowed or not.

"Anyone who excludes this will definitely increase the safety standard," Arnold says.

If data does fall into the wrong hands, it usually doesn't happen in the home network itself.

"The gateway for malware is almost always the manufacturer's service. Hackers use this to gain access to customer data and ultimately to the devices," Arnold says.

 - dpa