Which Popular Gadgets Have The Riskiest Security Flaws
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Image: BBC Studios
The dirty little secret of your drone, Amazon Kindle, or Google Nest connected thingy is that many of them have terrible privacy and security flaws. The Mozilla Foundation puts out a connected gadget rating list called Privacy Not Included, which ranks internet-connected devices based on whether they spy on you too much, or whether they’re designed with terrible information security blunders built in.
A few of the of the gadgets with the worst security flaws are incredibly popular items. These things are really terrible to have in your house!
AMAZON KINDLE
In addition to selling your data to third parties, Mozilla Foundations points out that the Amazon Kindle comes with a default setting of no passcode. This is a fairly obvious security flaw, considering anyone can just then pick up your Kindle and start buying shit. If you have a Kindle, treat it like your phone and put a passcode on that fucker right away.
GOOGLE NEST HOME DEVICES
Those Google Nest Video Doorbells are already a huge privacy worry, but the Nest Learning Thermostat comes with the added concern that it might shut off in a computer glitch and cause all your pipes to freeze.
ALL DRONES ARE TERRIBLE
Not only does flying a drone make you an asshole, it opens up everyone around you to shady surveillance risks. Mozilla notes that the Parrot Bebop drone can be easily hacked with free tools that are available on the internet, so pretty much anyone with the skills can hijack and commandeer your drone. The DJI Drone is considered such a surveillance risk that the US Army banned its personnel from using them.
GOOGLE CHROMECAST
The Google Chromecast is a lovely little streaming device, but it does not use encryption. So if you’re streaming an open Wi-Fi network, someone could easily pop in and watch what you’re streaming.
GARMIN FITNESS TRACKERS
Garmin Vivosport fitness trackers share your health data, which could ultimately be used to discriminate against you in getting health insurance coverage. Additionally, the Mozilla Foundations says it’s unclear whether your data on these Garmin devices is encrypted or anonymized.
You can see the Mozilla Foundation’s criteria and methodology for creating these ratings detailed online.
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