{"id":249765,"date":"2026-05-19T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/smart-appliances-are-everywhere-so-are-the-privacy-risks\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:35:10","slug":"smart-appliances-are-everywhere-so-are-the-privacy-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/smart-appliances-are-everywhere-so-are-the-privacy-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Appliances Are Everywhere. So Are the Privacy Risks."},"content":{"rendered":"

Smart Appliances Are Everywhere. So Are the Privacy Risks.<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/electronics\/data-theft\/tips-data-protection-privacy-smart-devices-a4910202450\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-19 16:24:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.consumerreports.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Protecting Your Data While Making Peace With IoT Apps and AI<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

If you use home devices that connect to the internet, you\u2019ll have to accept that in most cases they will collect data and send that data back to a company. But you don\u2019t have to feel powerless to minimize the amount of information that\u2019s collected, or to opt out of services you don\u2019t really need. Here are seven tips to protect your data:<\/p>\n

1. Keep the software current: <\/strong>On the protection side, Daniel says that one thing that\u2019s important that many people don\u2019t do with products that aren\u2019t phones or computers is to keep the device\u2019s software up-to-date. That can be a cumbersome process sometimes: Nobody\u2019s combing the internet habitually looking for software to keep their vacuums and food processors secure. But, Daniel advises, \u201cMake sure that to the extent that there are updates for those kinds of devices, that you do keep them updated, because that\u2019s actually important.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Look for firmware updates: <\/strong>That may require visiting the website for the product and looking at its support page to see if there are any firmware updates. An update might also be available within an app for an IoT device. If you\u2019re concerned about the security of an appliance or gadget, reach out to the manufacturer to check if updates are available.<\/p>\n

3. Review privacy settings: <\/strong>Daniel also suggests going into apps for devices and looking for any privacy settings that can be enabled and any data-collecting options to opt out of. \u201cAs little data as you can get away with and still have the device function,\u201d Daniel says.<\/p>\n

In some cases, apps are not intuitive to navigate, making it harder for some to figure out how to remove data-collection options or to enable enhanced privacy. In the past, some of that has been by design, with some tech companies accused of intentionally making it harder to avoid paid subscription services or hiding privacy options to…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smart Appliances Are Everywhere. So Are the Privacy Risks. https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/electronics\/data-theft\/tips-data-protection-privacy-smart-devices-a4910202450\/ Publish Date: 2026-05-19 16:24:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/article.images.consumerreports.org\/image\/upload\/t_article_tout\/v1778082966\/prod\/content\/dam\/CRO-images-2026\/Rapid%20Response\/CR-RR-Inlinhero-smart-appliances-privacy-0526","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249767,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249765\/revisions\/249767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}