this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Technology

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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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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 10 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Had a kill command actually been sent, or does the device just not work without a remote server talking to it every so often?

Because the second one is probably worse from a "what if this company goes bust" standpoint.

[–] core@leminal.space 5 points 8 hours ago

Man itd be great if there was an answer to this. Maybe in an article somewhere. Guess we'll never know.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago

Don't worry, the quality of the modern hardware is so shitty, it will not outlive the company for long