I’ve noted for years how the U.S. is simply too corrupt to pass a modern internet-era privacy law or regulate dodgy data brokers. So we are subjected to a parade of privacy and security scandals thanks to numerous industries that over-collect your data, fail to properly secure it, then sell access to any random asshole on the internet with a few hundred bucks to spare. Usually without informing users.
Countless gadgets like your smart television over-collect and monetize location and behavior data, but fail to engage in due diligence to protect it. Apparently even your air fryer is now over-collecting a whole bunch of data it doesn’t need so they can also monetize your every waking fart. According to UK consumer group Which?, most Amazon air fryers are now collecting all kinds of data they simply don’t need in order to function:
“In the air fryer category, as well as knowing customers’ precise location, all three products wanted permission to record audio on the user’s phone, for no specified reason. The Xiaomi app linked to its air fryer connected to trackers from Facebook, Pangle (the ad network of TikTok for Business), and Chinese tech giant Tencent (depending on the location of the user). The Aigostar air fryer wanted to know gender and date of birth when setting up an owner account, again for no clear reason, but this was optional. The Aigostar and Xiaomi fryers both sent people’s personal data to servers in China, although this was flagged in the privacy notice.”
America spent the last three years freaking out about TikTok while doing absolutely nothing about the massive monetized and badly secured surveillance empire taking root in every room in your house. Gizmodo expresses the obvious when they note that healthy, functional markets really shouldn’t function this way:
“Every piece of tech shouldn’t be a devil’s bargain where we allow a tech company to read through our phone’s contact list so we can remotely shut off an oven. More people are pissed about this issue and complaining to their government. Watchdog groups in the U.K. and the U.S. are paying attention.”
Except U.S. “watchdog groups” are poised to stop giving a shit about any of this soon. The CFPB has been pushing to impose restrictions on data collection, but they risk being shut down under the pretense of Elon Musk efficiency (read: corruption). The FTC has also finally been taking aim at data brokers, but it too is likely to be a shell of its former self under Trumpism.
Across the board a key part of the Project 2025 Trump agenda is to dismantle corporate oversight and regulatory independence, especially if there’s money to be made. So expect this sort of thing to just keep getting worse until there’s a scandal so massive and preposterous (likely involving the sensitive data of rich and powerful people) even our corrupt Congress feels compelled to finally act.
