A tech-savvy San Francisco resident has sparked conversation online after he shared a perplexing discovery about his LG washing machine’s seemingly voracious appetite for data on X (formerly Twitter).
In a post with more than 7 million views, Johnie Lee shared a screenshot of his machine’s data usage, which showed around 3.6GB of daily data usage. For context, 3GB of data is the rough equivalent of streaming high-definition video for an hour on a device.
Results found that smart washing machines are collecting a significant amount of user data, including personal information such as date of birth, location, and even access to photos.
There is no evidence that the data is being sold to third parties, but the prolonged lifespan of washing machines has begun to raise questions about long-term data tracking.
There was gigabytes of data being uploaded from the IP address of the >washer. I have segregated this device to its own network and logging data >usage.
I have yet to hear from LG on how to reset/update the firmware or how to >fix the rogue washing machine.
Oh well, that’s all good then. /s
And in a followup post, he explained it was a logging misconfiguration in his router
So close.
still not everything.