Comprehensive overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) across two primary domains: smart homes and smart cities. Several sources focus on smart home technology, detailing specific security camera products like the Aqara Camera Hub G5 Pro and G3, emphasising features such as AI detection, night vision, and data privacy protection. These texts also compare various wireless protocols like Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Matter, highlighting their relative strengths in terms of reliability, speed, and device interoperability for home automation, while also noting the market impact of trade tariffs on component costs. Concurrently, other sources explore the broader concept of smart cities, which leverage IoT, AI, and big data to improve urban management and services like energy efficiency and transportation. A major theme in the smart city context is data governance, with examples from Toronto, Chicago, and Columbus illustrating the critical challenges of public oversight, surveillance concerns, and data privacy that arise from collecting vast amounts of citizen data.