ADT plans IFTTT integration and rethinks security for a connected world

ADT, the home security giant, plans to link its Pulse home automation and security system with If This Then That in the coming months, as it seeks to protect its business from the influx of connected DIY security products flooding the marketplace. To do this, ADT has released products that are more mobile-friendly, such as the Pulse app, and has expanded the definition of security for the digital era.

“We protect a place — a premise — but that doesn’t provide security in the twent-first century,” said Arthur Orduña, ADT chief innovation officer, in an interview. “Besides protecting a place, let’s protect a person and allow them to retain that level of control when they walk out the door…We do a fabulous job of protecting the physical asset of you, but the rest of you is your bits and bytes stored around the world, so we’re thinking of your digital life.”

With all of that in mind, ADT has been working on products such as a digital security partnership with McAfee that was unveiled at CES and the ADT Canopy app, a service that lets you share the locations and whereabouts of loved ones on the go. Pulse, which lets ADT subscribers get home automation gear and services for a fee, was launched four years ago and has seen a number of improvements, such as the recent launch of voice control. But the link with IFTTT would open up Pulse to a much broader ecosystem of products.