You can spy back on your smart devices like Echo
What's the story
Smart home devices are known to collect/share information with third-parties to improve your experience as well as to serve adverts. But, most of us have no clue about what kind of information goes to these parties and up to what extent. This can raise many questions, but now, researchers have built an app to spy back on your connected device. Here's all about it.
App
Princeton IoT Inspector: A tool to monitor smart device activity
A group of researchers hailing from Princeton University have created a tool dubbed Princeton IoT Inspector to give you an idea of what information is being transmitted and to whom. It uses a technique called ARP spoofing and monitors every bit of traffic on a Wi-Fi network to determine what kind of data is collected, who gets access to it, and how often.
Effect
This way, you can spy back on your smart device
With this tool, you'd be able to track the activity of every connected device in your home, be it your smart speaker, coffee-maker, security camera, or TV, CBC Canada reported. So, if you are watching a channel on your Xiaomi smart TV, you'll be able to see how much information associated with that activity is being transmitted to how many advertisers and tracking services.
Use
However, only Mac version is available for download
The tool works after being downloaded on a computer, which it uses as a platform to connect to your network and monitor the activity of all devices connected to the same. However, it is only available for MacOS at the moment, meaning not everyone would be able to use this app for tracking and spying back on their smart devices.
Concerns
Data collection practices have long been questionable
Hopefully, the app made by the Princeton researchers could be expanded to other operating systems as well. This could be a major boon for privacy advocates who have been raising questions and alarms over the data sharing practices of tech companies. "Our smart devices are watching us," the researchers wrote on the website of the app. "It's time for us to watch them."