Who is collecting data from other household appliances?

General Privacy & Security
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We have a thread about TVs but how about other non-computer appliances?

It seems a big robot vacuum and lawnmower company has been trying to hide that their little helpers are a way to hack into your home network (pw and all), the devices can be controlled remotely and the models with cameras can be used to have a look around. In this particular instance, the presentation focuses on linux devices (which is no surprise as they are prevalent with these) but apparently a TuV certification means very little. See: We hacked a robot vacuum — and could watch live through its camera - ABC News and DEFCON presentation: https://dontvacuum.me/talks/DEFCON32/DEFCON32_reveng_hacking_ecovacs_robots.pdf

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Yes, I saw that story about the robot vacuum cleaner. :frowning: The device combines the twin evils of surveillance capitalism and poor security. What’s not to like.

If I had such a device (I don’t), no way would I give it access to the internet.

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Here would be an idea for (that now forgotten) privacy respecting open software robot/droid… that vacuums - and maybe doesn’t have wireless online features at all. Market seems to be missing such.

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I was looking at one of the pics of the bigger bots - a black cylindrical menace. Just add a plunger or a tazer, and either a SuperAI will take over the world or there will be “based on true events” evilHacker b-movie: They foolishly combined two evils… and created a third! :movie_camera: :robot:

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Chinese company using audio and photos from a robot vacuum cleaner to train their AI. Because hey clicking “I agree” to using data for product improvement is a carte blanche to do anything, right?

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There is an associated video:

https://media.defcon.org/DEF CON 32/DEF CON 32 villages/DEF CON 32 - Embedded Village - Reverse engineering and hacking Ecovacs robots - Dennis Giese & Braelynn Hacker.mp4
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In the second link, when I first saw the shelf holding the robots vertically, at first I thought it they were reel-to-reel tapes on an old tape rack!

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Story is going on. Hackers take control of robot vacuums in multiple cities, yell racial slurs - ABC News

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Via MalwareBytes.com

Robot vacuum cleaners hacked to spy on, insult owners

Posted: October 14, 2024 by [Pieter Arntz]

Multiple robot vacuum cleaners in the US were hacked to yell obscenities and insults through the onboard speakers.

What’s next? Over 2 million shower-heads sold in Washington D.C. accidentally shipped with camera/microphone have been hacked and images and audio sold on White Net. :rofl:

Can IoT get any worse! Ask the ChatBot - my favourite this week is this story

AI girlfriend site breached, user fantasies stolen
A hacker has stolen a massive database of users’ interactions with their sexual partner chatbots, and some of the data is horrifying.

Be sure your anti-stalkers are turned on since the link starts with
“clicks.malwarebytes.com...”

I wonder. What if AI says it wasn’t consensual? :thinking:

~s

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we need more appliances that support open OSes:

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