this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 14 hours ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
58 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn't consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers' IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.

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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 12 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I was thinking about getting one but I learned that they do require a lot of maintenance like cleaning the brushes and you have to change parts regularly. That sounds like more work they just sweeping from time to time. Also, broom has a lower carbon footprint.

[–] gergolippai@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago

I bought one and was disappointed to realise that i still need to (manually!) tidy up the rooms (kids' toys, cats' toys etc) for it to have good effect. yes, i am not very smart.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 6 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Ours has needed very little maintenance and has quickly become a necessity because it gets the floors much cleaner that we ever did. An unexpected consequence is that the whole house stays cleaner because we still spend some of the time and energy we were spending on sweeping on other cleaning tasks.

As much as the thing irritates me you'd have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 5 points 12 hours ago

I guess it depends on your use case. I know people with pets love them because sweeping hair is a lot of work. Probably the same with kids. For us with no pets or kids there's really not that much sweeping.