One of our Blue Blaze irregulars alerted us to some slick social engineering.
He recently purchased an iRobot Roomba 960 Robot Vacuum Cleaner. He writes...
"What is "odd" is that when we first bought the thing we didn't have any screens requiring registration. Then about two weeks later the entire user interface changed that required registration.
These two screens were strategically placed among "required information" even though this information was not mandatory. If you weren't paying attention you'd fill this out. Clever!"
I had a look at their Privacy Policy. Dig deep enough and you find this...
Some of our Robots are equipped with smart technology which allows the Robots to transmit data wirelessly to the Service...
• When you register your Robot with the online App, we collect information about the Robot, such as a Robot name (how cute) and device number, and information about the Robot and/or App usage (reveals when might you not be home), such as battery life and health.
• Certain Robot models are equipped to collect information about the environment in which the Robot is deployed. For example, the Robot collects information about the level of dirt detection and the Wi-Fi signal strength in each location and information about its movement throughout the environment to create a location ‘map’ of the Robot’s domain and the existence and type of objects (chair, desk, fridge etc.) or obstacles encountered.
Security Issues
- Do you really want a map of your home and belongings sent who-knows-where?
- Do you really want someone to know all your router information and password which connects to one of their apps on the internal side of your firewall?
- What happens when their database gets hacked?
I am guessing you don't. I'm also guessing you didn't know this was going on in the Internet-of-Things.
Ah, for the good old Jetson days when robots only talked to themselves.
