posted in Technology
Smart devices can testify against you: How home robot data is being used in court
www.the-independent.com/tech/robot-vacuum-fitbit-smart-device-data-trial-b3052060.html
Replying to @Mustachius_Grumpius@thelemmy.club
Thats why my robovac runs valetudo valetudo.cloud
Valetudo runs alongside the existing software on the robot vacuum though, does it not?
From what I gather, valetudo sits between the firmware and the cloud, co-opting cloud functionality and serving that from the vacuum. Since nothing is going to the cloud, only the information stored on the robot, or that you’ve stored yourself, can be used against you. So while your vacuum may have a microphone or camera, it shouldn’t be recording what you say or do anywhere. I have yet to start my valetudo journey and have barely started my robot vacuum journey precisely because of scenarios like this.
I’m not convinced this actually holds. To be able to use Valetudo at all, you at minimum do need to connect it to a wifi network which you are connected to as well on some kind of device. Unless you happen to be setting up some kind of firewalling on the robot vacuum, it is at that point free to start logging whatever information it deems appropriate.
The code is open source. Like any open source software, unless it’s been vetted, you’re relying on trust. The premise is that the software is running on the vacuum, so there is no cloud or remote storage. So, just like anything else self-hosted, unless your network is compromised or you configure it to allow it, nothing external is accessing it. If you don’t trust it, vet it. Read the code or check your network logs.
I’m not talking about the code in Valetudo - I’m talking about the code that’s already running on the robot vacuum before installing Valetudo. It remains on the device after you install Valetudo.
Basically, any concerns about privacy stemming from the original software on the robot vacuum do not get eliminated by installing Valetudo
From what I can see, one of two things happens. First, the main cloud communications are intercepted and handled by Valetudo. It replaces the cloud infrastructure with the firmware it adds to the vacuum. Second, some require connectivity to your router or the internet in general. Connections to your router shouldn’t be harmful, and he specifically leaves blocking connections to the internet (which shouldn’t be required for the vacuum to function). I’m only speculating here, but given the open-endedness of the comment I’m guessing explicitly blocking certain connections could be considered an illegal circumvention by laws such as the DMCA. I’d like them to note which vacuums those are so they could be more easily avoided.