What we found
Cosori Smart Air Fryer: FChinese-made air fryer that knows your WiFi password, location, and records audio.
The Cosori CS158-AF is an air fryer. While VeSync also sells body scales and fitness trackers, these health permissions are bundled into the same app that controls a kitchen appliance. Users who only own an air fryer are granting the app access to their body fat percentage, heart rate, sleep patterns, and exercise data.
Xiaomi Air Purifier 4: FAir purifier that maps your home via WiFi and sends data to Beijing.
Exodus Privacy found 8 trackers embedded in the Xiaomi Home app: Bugly (Tencent crash reporting), Facebook Analytics, Facebook Login, Facebook Share, Google Firebase Analytics, JiGuang Aurora Mobile JPush (Chinese push notification + analytics), Pangle (ByteDance/TikTok advertising SDK), and Tencent Stats. Pangle is specifically an advertising SDK owned by ByteDance that monetizes user data for ad targeting. The AD_ID permission confirms advertising identifier collection. These trackers transmit user behavior data to Tencent, Facebook/Meta, ByteDance, and Google — four of the world's largest advertising companies.
Thermomix TM6: DVorwerk says they don't sell your data, then immediately admits they share it with advertisers in a way that legally counts as selling it.
The same privacy policy immediately continues: 'we do share personal information for IBA purposes (also known as targeted advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising) to Advertising Providers, and this sharing may be considered a sale under state law.' Vorwerk explicitly acknowledges that what they do may legally constitute selling personal data while simultaneously claiming they don't sell it. This is a textbook contradiction within their own policy document.
Family Hub RF28R7551SR: DYour Samsung fridge has three cameras inside that automatically take photos of your food every time you close the door.
The Family Hub contains three 2-megapixel cameras that automatically photograph fridge contents every time the door closes. SmartThings Privacy Notice confirms collection of "images recognized as food and taken when you open and close the refrigerator door." This automated surveillance happens by default in a kitchen appliance — consumers buying a refrigerator do not expect it to photograph their food and upload images to Samsung's cloud.
Samsung Bespoke AI Fridge: DYour fridge has a privacy policy, a microphone, and a camera. It also keeps food cold.
SmartThings privacy notice confirms collection of "images recognized as food taken when you open and close the refrigerator door." Camera trained on ~1M food photos. Identifies 37 fresh food types, 50 packaged items. Images captured and transmitted even though "non-food areas are automatically blurred."