Would you allow a stranger to drive a camera-equipped computer around your living room? You might have already done so without even realizing it. The Beginning: A Curious Experiment It all started innocently enough. I had recently bought an iLife A11 smart vacuum—a sleek, affordable, and technologically advanced robot

A software architect discovered his iLife A11 smart vacuum was secretly transmitting data to overseas servers in 2025. When he blocked the data collection, the vacuum was remotely disabled through hidden software that allowed manufacturer access[1].

The vacuum contained sophisticated hardware including an AllWinner A33 processor running Linux and Google Cartographer mapping software. Through reverse engineering, the author found rtty remote access software that let manufacturers secretly control devices[1:1].

The incident sparked discussions about IoT device privacy and control. Multiple vacuum brands including Xiaomi, Wyze, and Viomi use the same hardware platform (3irobotix CRL-200S), suggesting widespread vulnerability[1:2].

The story gained attention in October 2025, with tech commentators highlighting it as a cautionary tale about smart home devices[2]. Forum discussions revealed similar experiences with other robot vacuums losing connectivity or requiring resets after firmware updates[3][4].

  1. The Day My Smart Vacuum Turned Against Me ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Suggested Read: The Day My Smart Vacuum Turned Against Me - Troy Patterson ↩︎

  3. Wyze Forums - Robot vacuum does not connect to wifi ↩︎

  4. Wyze Forums - Wyze Vacuum Save Created Maps in App ↩︎

  • Zerush@lemmy.mlOP
    183·
    2 days ago

    I use a broom, faster than any of these bots, cheaper, environment friendly and 100% private.

    • makeitwonderful@lemmy.todayEnglish
      29·
      2 days ago

      People that take a bucket to the river for their water don’t have to worry about plumbing leaks. Not having to spend time gathering water is worth the time of dealing with plumbing for me. I feel similarly towards having to do surface level vacuuming vs the time of dealing with firewalls.

    • dan1101@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      I don’t like brooms indoors, they stir up dust instead of sucking it up like vacuums do. A regular vacuum does just fine for me.

      • Zerush@lemmy.mlOP
        36·
        2 days ago

        Wrong, they spread less dust as an vacuum cleaner do. because a vacuum cleaner suck in one end and blow on the other. After some uses this thing begin to spread a lot of the dust in the whole air. The little dust spreaded by an broom is only very limited locally.

        • quick_snail@feddit.nl
          1·
          1 day ago

          This. Vaccumes smell terrible, use tons of power, and make a ton of noise.

          Broom sweeping dust settles after a few minutes. Just wear a mask.

    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      It’s well known that brooms are the pinnacle of cybersecurity among cleaning tools! Every smart device is a potential target for hackers, while these dumb tools stand as an impenetrable fortress. Forget about remote hacking; the only way to breach a broom’s defences is with good old-fashioned physical access and a hacksaw. As long as you keep your brooms locked up tight, nobody will be hacking them. Better yet, being 100% software-free, there’s no pesky malware or bloatware either. Brooms also take wireless security very seriously. No hardware kill switches are needed when there’s zero communication in either direction.

  • blackbrook@mander.xyz
    61·
    2 days ago

    Interesting article, but was that stupid, presumably AI generated, picture really necessary?

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I have one of the older rhumbas. It does have the ability for wifi access, but I’ve never understood fully why someone would hook it up to wifi. I live in a very small house, less than 1100 sq ft. I can traverse one end of my house to the other in a matter of seconds. I walk over to the rhumba, push the clean button, and off it goes ridding my floors of dog hair. Works great. What other options would wifi open up? The ability to start and stop it? I wonder sometimes if people just never really think about what or why they are giving wifi access to. It’s kind of like an AI Rice Cooker. It seems very unnecessary to me, but it seems like a selling point to others. ‘Oh a wifi enabled, AI Rice Cooker! This is gonna cook the fuck out of some rice’, and away they go. Not realizing we’ve been making excellent rice without wifi or AI for millennia. I mean, I sit and watch my sushi chef masterfully make rice with basic kitchen pots and pans.

    Now, I’m no Luddite, and I really dig on technology. Been this way since I was a kid thumbing through Pop Sci mags and later on Byte Magazine. I can’t get enough. However, I also realize that all technology wields a double edged sword. So, it’s always a research project when I add some electronic gizmo. Can it run autonomously? Why does it need wifi? What advantages does this gizmo give that a conventional tool can’t perform? Sometimes there’s a trade off, but most times there is no reason to give wifi access, and if I do, it’s isolated, like my Traeger Timberline. It comes with a remote and wifi access, so it get’s isolated from the rest of the appliances. It is not essential to it’s operation, but when I’m smoking big butts overnight, I can adjust temps from the comfort of my bed. So, there’s the trade off. You give it wifi access, isolate it, lock it down, and Jack’s a doughnut, Bob’s your uncle.

    • Evotech@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 day ago

      Start and stop, manage schedules, notifications if it failed something or if its stuck, see a map, get updates automatically etc