I am always suspicious of any device that requires an app. It feels so unnecessary in most cases. Everything from headphones to lawnmowers to air fryers seems to have an app now. Often the app is bad in terms of its functionality because it’s an afterthought. But I’m more concerned about the privacy around them.

Sure, I can deny all the permissions I want. But as a consumer, I feel like there have been situations where I see something unusual, for example, in search results or recommendations, that makes me feel like I have a leak in my privacy somewhere. And I think these apps are part of it. I don’t fully trust the privacy model of smartphones and the apps on them. But I shouldn’t have to either.

There are also many apps that do not work unless you give them a lot of permissions. And it feels like there is no good reason to require those permissions. I feel like such apps should be banned from the App Store.

PS: an air fryer is just a small convection oven. You can just use your oven or get a small countertop one.

This article summarises a report carried out by Which?, the UK consumers’ rights magazine. I submitted this article because I found it surprising that people would spend money on a kitchen utensil that is connected to the Internet.

After reading the report, it turns out that the most egregious privacy invasions are from the opaque smartphone apps that are used with the air fryers. Having an associated app for a fryer or oven would be a big red flag for me.

A couple of years ago, I switched my mobile phone from Android to iOS primarily for privacy reasons (I work as a sysadmin in my day job and don't really want to spend my free time as the sysadmin of a Lineage system). This finding seems to vindicate that choice:

> Far more information was taken from those with Android phones, as Apple now disallows some types of data gathering and offers additional privacy protections.

Archived version: https://archive.is/6jrTK

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