Consumers should be very wary of buying cloud connected appliances or devices
Flashing lights and AI-powered functionality often hides a very dark secret. Most of these devices are connected to a cloud service, you typically do not even know where that service is (and the US is as bad as China when it comes to eavesdropping, allegedly).
In the linked article, a man discovered what happened when he tried to block that access, which also reveals another issue — that the devices can frequently be remotely disabled, and you would not know anything about that.
Such a device connected to your main home network, as it has established a network link out through your firewall, could be used to attack or snoop on all your other network devices including computers. You certainly, as an absolute minimum, want such devices only connected to a guest network, and want that guest network isolated from the main network (the latter is not the default for consumer grade routers). In my case, my IoT devices have their own VLAN which is completely isolated from all other network devices, which are also segmented into their own VLAN groupings.
In summary, just remember that a cloud dependent device can become a useless paper weight at a point in time (whether you stop paying for a subscription service, or whether the manufacturer goes out of business or ends support), it can open up external access to your network, or it can be sending out other sensitive information anywhere in the world.
Because 99.9% of us have no idea what that device is actually doing, we may want to rethink supporting the purchase of such devices. The more people who buy them, the more manufacturers will produce them, and we'll see fewer alternatives available over time.
I'm a cynic though, so I'm doubting the world will stand up together and only purchase non-cloud connected devices, but I thought I'd just put this out there.
Credit to Security Now! podcast episode no 1049 where it was discussed.
See
Man Alarmed to Discover His Smart Vacuum Was Broadcasting a Secret Map of His House
One man's robot vacuum was constantly communicating with its manufacturer, sending a detailed 3D map of his house halfway across the world.
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