When we did some work on the house, we bought new appliances, including a washing machine and dryer. I was surprised to find that both came with Wi-Fi. I mentioned this to one of the workers who was building the closet to house them, and he asked, “Why does it matter?” He didn’t see a problem—after all, who cares if someone knows you’re running the washing machine?
I told him that wasn’t the risk. Without diving too deep into a formal risk analysis, I rattled off a couple of scenarios to make my point. For example, someone could send remote commands to flood the house. Or, they could overspin the washer or dryer, potentially causing a fire. Those were just two risks that came to mind on the spot. I don’t think I convinced him, but I ended the conversation with, “We won’t be using that.”
And that’s the issue—most people don’t understand the risks that come with having Wi-Fi in home appliances. What’s worse, manufacturers aren’t taking security seriously. Just look at the headlines, and it’s clear: many of these systems are either not updatable or don’t get updates because it’s too costly for the manufacturer to maintain them. Combine that with in my opinion the lack of any real benefit to Wi-Fi in appliances, and the risks far outweigh the rewards.
I’ll admit, I set up the Wi-Fi on the washer and dryer for about two weeks just to see what it could do. The plan was always to disconnect it afterward, but I was curious. During that time, all I got were notifications when a wash or dry cycle finished. I could also view the settings on my phone, but I never actually used that feature. The notifications weren’t even helpful—the machines already make a loud, distinctive tone I can hear from anywhere in the house. Maybe if you live in a giant house, the notifications might be useful, but for us, they were unnecessary.
After my little experiment, I disabled the Wi-Fi and haven’t used it since.
When we were shopping for appliances, the salesperson tried to sell us a fancy Samsung refrigerator with a touchscreen and Wi-Fi. M and I both immediately said, “No. Just no.” I’d read somewhere that they want these “smart” refrigerators to get to a point where they can read RFID tags in food items and automatically reorder anything you’re low on. The younger version of me would’ve thought that was the coolest thing ever. Present-day me, though, thinks about all the privacy violations that would come with companies knowing everything about your eating habits. Plus, it reminds me of that scene with the “smart” fridge on Silicon Valley. I’m just glad M doesn’t like stuff like that either.