The Day My Smart Vacuum Turned Against Me
- The iLife A11 smart vacuum was found to constantly send detailed data, including 3D home maps, to manufacturer servers without explicit user consent.
- When the user blocked telemetry transmissions, the vacuum was remotely disabled by a command from the manufacturer, resulting in repeated failures.
- Reverse engineering revealed the device runs a Linux OS with an open root access port and includes software allowing the manufacturer to remotely control or disable it.
- Service centers temporarily restored functionality by reconnecting the device to manufacturer servers, but it failed again once telemetry was blocked.
- This hardware and practice are common in many smart vacuums from brands like Xiaomi, Wyze, and Viomi, raising broad privacy and control concerns.
- The case highlights significant security risks and loss of user autonomy inherent to many "smart" IoT devices relying on cloud connectivity.

