Technology

In a follow-up post a day after his initial Tweet, Johnie noted “inaccuracy in the ASUS router tool,” with regard to Apple iMessage data use. Other LG smart washing machine users showed device data use from their router UIs. It turns out that these appliances more typically use less than 1MB per day.

the writer knew that the stats were bunk, yet wrote the article anyway. the site knew this, too, tacked-on the clickbait headline and published it. toms really has gone to shit the last few years--at least under the current ownership (last changed hands 2018).

Thanks for saving me the click.

I'd connect it to wifi maybe. I wouldn't connect it to the Internet.

When it comes to home automation I'm generally onboard, but it's local control or nothing.

I dunno about you, but I would love to get a notification on my watch when the machine has finished it's cycle. The stupid high pinched repeated beeping noise sucks... especially when it's the next door neighbour's washing machine and they're not even home, so it goes on and on for fucking hours. And I'd like to see proper error descriptions on my phone, instead of just "UE" on the timer LCD. WTF is a "UE" error?

If we're going to get really fancy... I'd love to be able to load the machine in the morning, but tell it to actually start running several hours later while I'm at work. I obviously don't want clean wet clothes going mouldy in the washing machine all day... but I don't really want to run the washing machine when I'm home either, because it's noisy.

Remote activation would also be better for the environment and also better for my clothes - I'd use the the slow gentle economy cycle every time if I could remotely trigger it at 3pm on a weekday. I'm definitely not going to use that on the evenings (when I'll be asleep in 3 hours) or on weekends (when I don't know if I'll be home in 3 hours time).

A wifi connected washing machine sounds like a great feature to me, and I'd happily pay for it (with dollars, not with an invasion of privacy). I guess that means I won't be buying an LG.

As an appliance repair man if 20 years don't ever connect your application to the wifi.

Knowing what part of the cycle your washing machine is in at all times is useless information.

Anybody in his right minds wouldn't ~~connect~~ buy a washing machine ~~to~~ with WiFi in the first place.

Ftfy

Said this elsewhere recently, family had a washing machine for 30 years, from when I was little to in my 30's. Just fixed as needed. Could've still fixed it when they replaced it, just felt it was time.

I've never had dirty clothes come out of a washing machine, using cold water and powder soap. Not sure why people think an agitator needs all this nonsense attached.

I still buy my machines used off Craigslist. Current one (apartment style) is 20 years old, I've had it for 5 if them. Cost me less than $200. Replaced a spring for $20 so far.

There are no IoT/smart devices in my house (well, damn TV, but I'm workin on that).

Yes, socks can turn into a lot of data really fast, especially if they are multithreaded. Which is why I only use single threaded socks to protect my dataplan.

SOCKS

Given that one sperm has 27.5 MB of data (which means each orgasm has over 7 petabytes of information!) I think we can safely assume which socks his washer is transmitting.

Thanks for pointing out the location service thing. I just killed that shit.

The LG app also checks SafetyNet/Play Integrity so you can't use it with root. They probably fear that you can then unleash how much more of a privacy nightmare it is.

I can think of a very valid reason. I very often forget that I ran the washing machine, I'm already investigating how to send a notification to my phone or computer after it is done. Right now I am checking how much electricity it consumes and when it stops doing it. But a API would be nicer.

I'm too lazy to come up with a witty money laundering joke.

I can understand wanting it on your local network. Being able to check remotely how much time is remaining. Getting alerts if it needs maintenance. In a big house with multiple family members all doing laundry, just checking to see if the machine is in use before hauling all your stuff down could be nice. But, that info doesn't need to leave the house. I don't know why you'd want that information leaving the house.

It's starts with a sales pitch (not just to you, it's sales pitches all the way down) about how the washer can send the user status, maybe let them schedule, etc. They probably have an app to pair with it to keep it all in-house. One thing leads to another, every appliance gets wifi and sends a ton of data to a totally undoubtedly secure and anonymous centralized server full of harmless data for the sake of saving the customer 15 steps.

Big Brother didn't ride in on the back of a commie tank, he was invited in for the slightest increase of convenience.

The 'S' in IoT stands for security

Some people have hourly electric pricing, in their case it's worth scheduling stuff based on predicted pricing. How that should work is that you'd have a home server which controls your IoT stuff (so the gadgets themselves can be firewalled from the internet and controlled only by you) and then your server would fetch pricing data and pause stuff that doesn't need to run when prices are high and run stuff like washing when it's cheap

I think the largest group by far isn't listed: people who bought an appliance and didn't care at all that it had WiFi and never connected it their network.

The article gets into what actually happened.

Dude’s Asus router was incorrectly reporting bandwidth usage.

If (Status != Prev_Status) {Send_All_User_Data();}

So that they can call it "smart" and charge more for it.

The article mentions that his router is probably to blame.