THE smart vacuum cleaners They move around homes guided by sensors that recognize furniture, corners and walls, creating automatic tours without human intervention. These devices are easy to program and clean independently even when no one is at home, which has strengthened its presence in millions of homes.
The navigation system allows you memorize routes and adapt your work to each floor surface, with algorithms that adjust cleaning power and time based on detected conditions. Additionally, they can be activated from the mobile phone and provide performance reports after each use. Its apparent simplicity hides a complex numerical structure which combines cameras, microphones and position sensors capable of collecting precise information about the environment. It is this same structure which opened a debate on confidentiality and control of the data generated inside the houses.
A developer detected that his device was sending information outside the country without authorization
The programmer and electronics enthusiast Harishankar Narayananan Indian resident, discovered that his smart vacuum cleaner was sending information about his home to servers outside the country.
As explained on his blog Small worldthe device had been running for a year before he decided to observe its behavior on the network. “My robot vacuum cleaner was on “Constant communication with manufacturer, transmitting recordings and telemetry that I never authorized.”said Narayanan, who began his investigation after detecting a continuous outward flow of data.
To prevent this, it blocked this information from being sent and only allowed firmware updates. The device continued to work for a few days, but one morning stopped lighting. The technician he spoke to verified that in the repair service it was working without errors, although when he returned home it turned off again. Narayanan repeated the operation several times until the the company rejected the new notices because it considered the warranty to be exhaustedwhich transformed his device into a useless object, for no apparent reason.
The programmer warns that this situation is not exclusive. He said connected home devices represent a growing risk because they maintain constant communication with companies the consumer barely knows. “Our homes are full of cameras, microphones and mobile sensors connected to companies about which we know very little,” he said, emphasizing that all can be transformed into control instruments with a simple digital instruction. In doing so, this poses a daily problem in terms of managing personal data.
The investigation revealed a system that drew the house and shared it
Narayanan later checked that the vacuum cleaner It sent data without interruption from day one. To confirm his suspicions, he took the device apart and reprinted the circuit boards. In this process he found an open source program, Google Cartographerdesigned to generate a three-dimensional map of the interior houses.
The device created this model of your house and transmitted it automatically to the manufacturer. This finding confirmed that the spatial information collected by the robot was part of the product, not only as an operating aid but also as a source of business data.
Analyzing the code allowed him to locate a remote command issued by the company at the very moment the machine had stopped. According to his reconstruction, this order was the obvious cause of the closure. Narayanan reversed the instruction and the device worked again, proving that the the manufacturer had the ability to remotely disable any unit. “They used their control system to deactivate my device,” he explained. This observation has evolved into a complaint against the control that technology companies exert once products are already in the hands of the consumer.
This case highlighted the growing dependence of households on devices that operate without supervision. The ability to record movements, create digital models of spaces and send usage information extends businesses’ reach into everyday life.
Thus, the convenience promised by automatic vacuum cleaners may lead to a discreet form of surveillance at home which, according to Narayanan, deserves an urgent review of its security mechanisms and the conditions of use that accompany them.
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