--- title: "Amazon Outage Shuts Down IoT Vacuums, Doorbells, Fridges, Even Home Locks" description: "We now have yet another reason to despise Amazon after the company's Tuesday outage left tons of people with \"smart homes\" in the lurch." date: "2021-12-08" modified: "2021-12-08" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/amazon-outage-iot" categories: - "Computing" - "Internet Of Things" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "Alexa" - "Amazon" - "internet of things" - "smart homes" --- # Amazon Outage Shuts Down IoT Vacuums, Doorbells, Fridges, Even Home Locks ![We now have yet another reason to despise Amazon after the company's Tuesday outage left tons of people with "smart homes" in the lurch.]() *\Image: Futurism\* Vaunted megacorporation Amazon suffered an outage this week that left tons of customers with "smart homes" in the lurch. As [*Bloomberg* reported](), the Amazon Web Service (AWS) outage disrupted a wide variety of the company's Internet of Things products, including its Alexa voice assistant and Ring smart doorbell — and those products' users were royally pissed when they [couldn't turn on their automated Christmas lights]() or even *get into their freaking houses*. "How can I get into my home?" [one user tweeted at Ring]() when the account confirmed the outage. "I don’t remember the code. I always use my app." The AWS outage's effect on Ring, in particular, demonstrates the particular dangers of making home security hardware rely on the cloud. As [one user put it](), the company's "customers' home security is at risk." Ring and Alexa were not, however, the only products affected. Anyone whose products connect to AWS — which covers approximately 41 percent of cloud computing services, per its own numbers — could have been affected. In this case, that meant [Roomba vacuums](), "[smart" fridges](), and even [voice-activated lightbulbs]() were out of luck during the roughly nine-hour outage. While the e-commerce giant's outage was a huge headache for countless people, it was also yet another example of why Amazon's [dystopian]() [monopoly]() is so dangerous — and why AWS' single point of failure is bad news bears for everyone that has to use it. The outage also hammers home the point that there's no compelling reason why every piece of tech we own should be connected to the internet, especially after this [banner year]() of [massive-scale]() [web service outages](). As Twitter user Jim Nivison [so elegantly put it](): "Why does a fridge need to be connected to anything but a power outlet?" Why indeed, Jim. Why indeed. **More on Amazon:** [*Amazon Is Quietly Researching How to Block Out the Sun*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()