this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
275 points (97.3% liked)

Technology

60052 readers
3243 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack::A widely reported story that 3 million electric toothbrushes were hacked with malware to conduct distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is likely a hypothetical scenario instead of an actual attack.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

OK. Maybe I've just been out of the loop, but what on earth would you need BT in a toothbrush for? So you can pair it with an app and track your brushing while someone else also tracks and uses this data for profit?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The primary use case is for making sure kids and elderly loved ones are brushing their teeth and keeping the brush charged. Also supposedly senses if all teeth are being properly cleaned, although based on reviews that sounds like a stretch. But yeah, the aggregated data is probably marketable somehow - I didn't check their privacy policies.

Electric toothbrushes are a thing. It's understandable that the vendors would like a rationale to track usage. Not beyond the bounds of possibility that in ten years it may be impossible to buy an electric toothbrush that doesn't track usage and try to phone home to report it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've had an electric for well over 10 years(same one). They are so much better than normal brushes IMO.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Concur. Also long time user here - but prefer to skip the data collection bit. Imagine showing up at the dentist some day and being chided for missing your back molars last Tuesday.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Tbh if the data only went to my dentist I'd be okay with that. Real tooth pain strikes fear into the hearts of mortal men. After experiencing that once I'd give a lot to never experience it again.