Yet another vector for data collection.
It seems to me that the business model is out of whack as the incentivization to do this is greater than the desire for privacy on the general public’s part.
Your Router Is Collecting Your Data. Here’s What to Know, and What to Do About It - CNET
PS: The eeros are by far the most egregious offenders in our testing
Can’t be too paranoid these days. I’ll never forget that Vizio TVs were quietly analyzing the actual content on your screen every single second, comparing it against a database of known video content. That includes content from your DVD player or from a memory stick. Pulled the plug quickly on that one.
I am reasonably paranoid, using incognito mode whenever I look up something medical, but I’m not enough of an expert to know what info still leaks. If an app asks to discover devices on my network I assume it’ll at least also be used for tracking, so I deny it. I don’t even know if Mac addresses can be requested, which if they can would de-anonymize everyone pretty quickly. Can they? Or only by routers?
If you’ve ever looked at the number of tracking links and domains on your typical website it’s pretty clear that we’re all in hundreds of databases in some form. Seems pretty much impossible to avoid, as your thread title correctly states.
I sat in a presentation on IoT about 6 years ago. Cisco told every (retail/end user) customer facing company in the room “We don’t care about your meters, usage plans or regulators. This whole thing is going to run on wifi over the routers we build. Your customers are going to willingly give us the data they scream about you having.”
Check that one off the to do list. 