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June 18, 2022 - A North Carolina based research firm - New Kite Data Labs - has issued a report on a brand of coffee makers from China. The report states that the devices, which are internet connectable, are capable of collecting a wide range of data on their owners including location and payment information. While the report is disturbing, it isn't surprising to anyone familiar with China's data collection routines. It is currently believed that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has information files on the vast majority of Americans, so why not get even more information through common household appliances?
While the report doesn't name the brand, the Washington Times is reporting t hat it a Chinese company named Kalerm, which manufactures the devices under their own name as well as for private label distributors. These particular devices are distributed in China as well as western Europe and throughout North America.
According to the report, it isn't known if the devices distributed here are actually collecting and sharing user data, but there is no reason to believe that they are not. And there is no way to know where any collected data is stored, with whom it is being shared or how it will be used. Because location data is part of the information that can be collected, it is reasonable to believe that the data from these coffee makers could be merged with data from other devices to paint a fairly complete picture of the owners' daily life at home, from the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night.
As disturbing as that may be to anyone who is privacy conscious, the fact that this information is being sent to a foreign location, and that the CCP requires all Chinese companies to cooperate with the government, is even worse. It begs the question: Why are we doing any business with China? Or more precisely, why would anyone willingly purchase a Chinese-built "smart" product?
Frankly I've never had the need to connect by coffee maker or refrigerator, or any other home appliance for that matter, to the internet. I can almost hear my daughter saying, "Oh boomer." But for me, the downsides of smart appliances far outweigh any benefits. There are almost no security regulations on what data these devices can collect or how it can be used. There are no regulations to ensure that the data doesn't leave the United States, and most of the devices currently on the market have very poor data security themselves.
In a way, you have to hand it to the Chinese. The CCP understands that "knowledge is power", and they are collecting all of the information they can while the US government just fiddles around. You can only hope that if our leaders ever do catch on to this, that it isn't too late to do something about it. In the meantime, it is up to Americans to protect themselves. The government is just too inept to do that.
by Jim Malmberg
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