Thinking About Buying A Smart Home Device? Here's What You Need To Know About Security

What precautions (for security and privacy) should I take when buying smart home devices which connect to the Internet? Our IoT devices know a lot about us. They hold our banking information, our health records, our family memories. They even know where we parked our car this morning (just in case we forget). With all that personal data tucked into a 5x2-inch box, we assume we can trust the security and privacy measures deployed.