The next time you slide some chicken nuggets into the air fryer or turn on your smart TV, be careful what you say, because the device may be smarter than you think.
Researchers with a British consumer magazine have identified four devices it says are likely spying on you, and possibly sending your information to China and other places. They focused on smart devices including air fryers, smart speakers, TVs and smartwatches.
They scored each device across six categories – consent, transparency, data security, data minimization, trackers and data deletion. The report says, "Our research shows how smart tech manufacturers and the firms they work with are currently able to collect data from consumers, seemingly with reckless abandon, and this is often done with little or no transparency."
Samsung smart TVs received the lowest privacy score of the devices studied. Other low-scoring devices included the Google Nest Mini, the Huawei Ultimate smartwatch, and the Cosori air fryer.