Chinese air fryers and deep fryers are 'spying' on their owners: a study.

A study by the English publication Which? revealed that some 'smart' household devices collect excessive amounts of data about their owners and even share this data with third parties. In particular, some deep fryers request access to the phone's microphone, while televisions want to know users' exact locations.

Some models of deep fryers, such as Xiaomi and Aigostar, require access to the phone's microphone and user location data, even though it is unrelated to their functioning. Xiaomi transfers data to trackers from Facebook, TikTok, and Tencent. Additionally, these fryers send user information to servers in China, as stated in their privacy policy.

Watches

The Huawei Ultimate smart watch required access to the microphone, geolocation, files, and the list of installed applications. Huawei explains this as a necessity for the device to function and assures that the data is not used for marketing. Other lesser-known brands, such as Kuzil and WeurGhy, also required consent for data processing. If the user declined, the watch functioned merely as a regular chronometer.

Television

Smart televisions such as Hisense, Samsung, and LG ask for a postal code to set up, although this information is not necessary. Samsung also requires access to other applications on the phone.

Speakers with hidden trackers

Bose Home Portable Speaker smart speakers have numerous trackers, such as Facebook and Google, although the permission requirements are minimal. Amazon Echo allows skipping some requests but requires linking to an Amazon or Google account.

All tested devices requested access to users' exact locations regardless of their category. Experts urge manufacturers to focus on protecting user privacy and to avoid excessive data collection.