In the Future, Even Your Dish Detergent Will be Spying on You

These tiny sensors keep track of how much is left in bottles. They could get kinda annoying.

Bust a Cap

It's the future. You're running low on dish detergent, so the container starts bugging you to buy more. Maybe it even cuts you out of the process by ordering more soap online on its own.

That's the idea behind Water.io, a hardware company that's working on a range of "smart caps" that keep track of how much stuff is left in a container.

Track Race

Water.io envisions a cap for water bottles, another for pill bottles, and another for detergents. The caps will tell you if you're hydrating enough, track whether you're taking all your pills — and, yes, put in orders when you're running low on soap.

It's a neat idea. But in the end, it's just one more way for retailers to collect data about your shopping and consumption habits. Just remember that, like online ads, these smart caps could eventually become annoying — or even invasive.

Brand More

Water.io CEO Kobi Bentkovski spelled out the vision in a new interview with Fast Company.

"We are enabling the brands of consumer packaged goods to get data from their products," he said. "The moment they know who their customers are, how customers are using a product, and when the product is going to run out is the moment they can compete with Amazon and the private brands of the retailers."

That sounds great for brands. But here at The Byte, we'll just keeping buying detergent when we see that we're running low.

READ MORE: Get Ready for a Future in Which Your Favorite Products Act Like Helicopter Parents [Fast Company]

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