The headline of this one made me smile. More and more appliances are being built so they can connect to the internet, and although I’m as techy as they come, I have never been able to fathom why you’d want something like a toaster, a kettle… or a fridge to be able to connect to the web.
I mean, why on earth does a fridge need to have that feature? TVs have this dubious capability these days, and although in the case of these there is a half a good reason to be able to do it (downloading firmware updates, and maybe downloading content), the fact that the damned things can autonomously connect and start pumping data out without your knowledge is of far more benefit to others than it is to the owner. LG, for example, has been coming over all Google and has been caught harvesting data it really shouldn’t have. Apple has been doing it for ages. And I won’t even try and list the numerous separate occasions on which Google has been caught spying on people – sending you emails about things you’ve looked at is just the tip of the iceberg, and most people will remember the Google Maps cars harvesting private Wi-Fi signals.
But the idea of a fridge sending out spam is as funny as it is sinister.