Researchers discover some air fryers listen to their owners and send data back to China

Researchers at "Which?," a UK organization that's a subsidiary of the Consumers' Association, discovered that some air fryers may be sharing their owners personal information and sending it back to China for marketing purposes.

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The researchers at the organization looked at three air fryer brands and found that all of them requested permission to record audio through the user's phone, but didn't specify the reason why the microphone permission was necessary. More specifically, the air fryers were from brands such as Aigostar and Xiaomi, both of which were found to be sending their buyers personal data back to servers located in China.

Air fryers weren't the only device the team looked at as it also conducted an analysis on smartwatches, smart speakers and smart TVs. Starting with smart speakers, the researchers found that Amazon's Echo device was more consumer-friendly as it has the option to skip various requests to share data. However, Amazon and Google accounts are required to use the Echo Pop or Nest Mini, which contain trackers that users cannot opt out of.

"Our research shows how smart tech manufacturers and the firms they work with are currently able to collect data from consumers, seemingly with reckless abandon, and this is often done with little or no transparency," said Which? magazine editor Harry Rose

These discoveries, which many people probably have already found in one way or another, highlights the importance of consumer watchdogs having the right legislative infrastructure in place to protect consumers from predatory smart devices that are inconspicuously harvesting data.