The smart vacuum cleaner was remotely bricked for not collecting data.

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[–] 196 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Having someone use a remote kill command for an item you bought for reasons other than imminent threats to safety ought to be illegal. This shouldn’t be treated differently from a car salesman bricking your windshield after you drive off the lot.

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  • [–] 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    In germany there's the "Computer sabotage" crime.

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  • [+] -6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Is it still sabotage if the only thing they have sold is a license to use their product not the product itself. That is still their property.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago*

    I'm no law expert, but as far as i know, there were already similiar cases. Reasoning (german law): Software required to run the product is not "licensed to use" but part of the product, which was bought, belongs the user and not the company. Remotely making the device unusable would indeed violate that term.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    At least in EU the manufacturer can't revoke licenses on sold physical products with no cause (can't expire before EOL either) and can't remove advertised functionality. If any feature is conditional or temporary it has to be disclosed before sale.

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  • [–] 26 points 1 year ago

    The issue you’ll run into is that the data runs through their servers, and you ages to let them kill it off. Should that be legal? I honestly don’t know. But they shouldn’t force you to use their servers to begin with, which would make the entire issue moot.

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  • [–] 64 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Conversely, instead of blocking the data transfer, have it send false data. Maybe a few drop table inserts.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago

    I do this when a job makes me install productivity tracking software. Surprisingly easy to gin up fake screenshots and JSON of your activities and inject it into the program. All it does is upload the records from a user folder every X minutes

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  • [–] 57 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    In case you have a robot vacuum and want to run it cloudless you can check Valetudo.

    It's been running my vacuum the last 4 years and I couldn't find any downsides (There are several extra functions if you like to tinker around with home assistant and the likes)

    If you have any doubts or need assistance with installing it, I would be happy to give you a hand :-)

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You could just setup a dedicated VLAN without Internet access to prevent this. Right?

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  • [+] -23 points 1 year ago (16 children)
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    acoustic vacuum

    Not a native speaker, is this even a word?

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Never heard it before. Maybe they're trying to make a metaphor, like an acoustic guitar = basic, electric guitar = smart. Maybe mistranslation.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    If you’re opposed to modern conveniences, get a broom.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Brooms are technology too, they were just invented thousands of years ago. They need to just switch to dirt floors like God intended. Oh wait, floors are technology too.

    Yeah, everyone has to choose what "modern" means to them I guess, but I think people who are happy to use smartphones and computers but draw the line at robot vacuums are kind of silly. There's a difference between the original post's (very reasonable) desire to have a disconnected robot vacuum that can't collect data, and the further level of derision that seems to come up anytime anyone wants to use any kind of convenience or time-saving device.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago

    I’m anti-cloud connected devices, too, but the right answer is getting one that’s local or disconnected. Guess they were too dumb to figure that out, and making fun of people who make the compromise on it maintained their ego.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The thing is.. I like vacuuming my home when I'm away from home, and that's a lot harder to do manually...

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  • [–] -1 points 11 months ago

    ...so the joke goes...

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