If your washing machine uses 3.6GB of data per day, would you still use it?

赵玉田

If your washing machine uses 3.6GB of data per day, would you still use it? [Copy link]

 

Last week, a self-proclaimed “fintech geek” named Johnie posted a tweet on X (formerly Twitter): “WTF! Why does my LG washing machine use 3.6GB of data every day?”

It was just an unintentional complaint, but what Johnie didn't expect was that this tweet caused a huge response, and many enthusiastic netizens participated in this investigation: Why does the washing machine need to connect to Wi-Fi? Is this the average data consumption of modern smart appliances? Or was this LG washing machine hacked, hijacked, or otherwise manipulated on the Internet?

Regarding the question of "why the washing machine is connected to Wi-Fi", like many smart home appliance companies, LG has launched an application SmartThinQ for its smart devices, which is mainly for users to control and automate all compatible home devices. For example, by connecting the washing machine to Wi-Fi, various washing preset programs can be downloaded, and generally only about 1MB of data is consumed per day.

But from the screenshots shared by Johnie, his LG washing machine downloaded 100MB of data and uploaded up to 3.57GB of data in one day, accounting for almost 5% of Johnie's daily traffic data - for a washing machine, this huge amount of data is obviously not right.

To this end, many netizens combined some past information to try to analyze the possible reasons why this LG washing machine became "addicted to the Internet":

(1) Being hacked and running some botnets to launch DDoS attacks.

This suspicion is not groundless, because as early as 2017, the cybersecurity company Check Point discovered a vulnerability called HomeHack in LG's smart home. It is understood that if attackers exploit this vulnerability, they can log in to the LG user's SmartThinQ account and remotely control the devices connected to the account, and even monitor the user's daily life through the camera in the Hom-Bot robot vacuum cleaner.

Although the HomeHack vulnerability was fixed a few weeks after it was made public, it still shows that Internet-connected devices are at risk of being hacked, and modern hackers may use the computer resources of a washing machine as a botnet to launch DDoS attacks on others.

(2) Using washing machines to mine cryptocurrencies.

This possibility sounds a bit unbelievable, but it is not impossible. Sometimes hackers control smart home appliances not for manipulation, but to use the computing power of these devices to mine. The general principle is to use them as part of a botnet for cryptocurrency mining or other evil purposes.

(3) Laundry data is uploaded to LG to improve its LLM.

Last week, Samsung launched a new multi-functional AI washing machine and dryer at CES, which can remember user habits and use machine learning to recommend cycles. Therefore, for the large amount of upload traffic consumed by this LG washing machine, some people suspect that the laundry data may be uploaded to LG to improve its LLM (large laundry model). [Source: CSDN]

qzc飘曳

LG washing machine uses 3.6GB of data per day, which is more than my phone uses in a day.

Delon

There should be a traffic limit for smart devices

秦天qintian0303

You can limit the traffic of connected devices through WiFi. Is this also the kind of model that steals traffic as a transit station?

赵玉田

Delon posted on 2024-1-17 16:10 There should be a traffic limit for smart devices

Yes, now all kinds of home appliances can be connected to the Internet. If you use 1G or 2G every day, who can afford it?

赵玉田

Qintianqintian0303 posted on 2024-1-17 16:17 You can limit the traffic of connected devices through WiFi. Is this also the kind of model that steals traffic as a transit station?

There is a possibility of being a transit station. There is no official response yet. The only thing we can do now is to close this network connection or, as you said, restrict it through wifi.

wangerxian

This traffic is for upload or download, but there must be something wrong with a smart device using so much traffic. I don't know how the official response is.

By the way, washing machines probably don’t run Linux, so if they run ESP32, can they handle so much traffic?

lanhua

Adding unnecessary details!

Does a washing machine need wifi? Some "intelligence" is useful to people, while some "intelligence" has the opposite effect.

freebsder

The washing machine comes with a video so you can watch it while washing.

fhl12431

Awesome! It sounds more interesting than the 3.5 tons of water used in a day of washing clothes. Maybe washing machines also need to surf the Internet.

吾妻思萌

Netizen: Are you gg or mm? Washing machine: I am a washing machine Netizen: Black question mark.jpg

abibas

It is said to be caused by statistical error.

led2015

Even if you don't use the internet on your phone for a month, your internet fee will still be deducted. This is the despicable behavior of mobile profiteers.