LG Threatens To Put Wi-Fi in Every Appliance it Introduces in 2017 (arstechnica.com)

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LG Threatens To Put Wi-Fi in Every Appliance it Introduces in 2017 (arstechnica.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday January 9, 2017 @02:40AM from the Wi-Fi-everywhere dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: During the company's CES press conference today, LG marketing VP David VanderWaal says that "starting this year" all of LG's home appliances will feature "advanced Wi-Fi connectivity." One of the flagship appliances that will make good on this promise is the Smart Instaview Refrigerator, a webOS-powered Internet-connected fridge that among other things supports integration with Amazon's Alexa service.

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Thank you LG! by Ol+Olsoc · 2017-01-09 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

For making my shopping easier. With all the choices out there, I can just cross LG off the list of anything I'd own.

--
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
1. Re:Thank you LG! by elrous0 · 2017-01-09 02:55 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm starting to worry that I'm going to have to wrap my house in a Faraday cage in a few years just to prevent a Maximum Overdrive-style attack from my own fucking appliances
  
  --
  SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
2. Re:Thank you LG! by cayenne8 · 2017-01-09 02:57 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  For making my shopping easier. With all the choices out there, I can just cross LG off the list of anything I'd own.
  Absolutely!!!
  I do NOT want all my appliances and such, internet connected and reporting back to God knows whom my household habits, lifestyle, consumption....
  Late last year, I bought a new LG french door refrigerator..and it is great.
  It was even then, starting to get to be a PITA to find a fridge with GOOD basic needs, like optimizing internal storage space, decent basic ice maker and water dispenser.
  If they put wifi on everything, it would be ok IF AND ONLY IF it can be disabled and NOT required for operation.
  Otherwise, no thanks...I don't need any other items I purchase potentially spying on my life. Its bad enough you can't hardly get a fucking car these days that doesn't phone home.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
3. Re:Thank you LG! by AmiMoJo · 2017-01-09 02:59 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Unfortunately, these things will sell really well.
  You already see everyone crowded around the Samsung fridge with LCD display in the shop. Consumers don't think through the security implications, they just see something that looks like the cool stuff they see in Hollywood movies and want to own it because consumerism is how people fulfil themselves these days.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
4. Re:Thank you LG! by Ol+Olsoc · 2017-01-09 03:23 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I'm starting to worry that I'm going to have to wrap my house in a Faraday cage in a few years just to prevent a Maximum Overdrive-style attack from my own fucking appliances
  Can you imagine? I'm wondering what the hell wireless system we're going to have here. I live in an individual dwelling neighborhood, low density, and see at least 20 routers every day on 2.4 - to the point where I had to use 5 GHz, because 2.4 was worthless.
  So now we're going to add a Refrigerator, a washer and dryer, a stove, the heating and cooling, the garage door opener, the Window blinds, the toilet, and whatever else they can figure out how to shoehorn a wireless connection onto?
  
  --
  The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
5. Re:Thank you LG! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-09 03:31 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I'm sure they'll have thought of this. The refridgeration probably won't start running until after it's phoned home and confirmed its ability to spy on you with LG's servers.
6. Re: Thank you LG! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-09 03:47 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm sure a wifi enabled shoehorn is coming too
7. Re:Thank you LG! by tripleevenfall · 2017-01-09 04:59 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Not me! I definitely want hackers to be able to shoot water and ice out of my refrigerator, and for it to upload "anonymized" data about all my activities and preferences for marketing purposes.
8. Re:Thank you LG! by tripleevenfall · 2017-01-09 05:20 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I'm sure those microphones and cameras that all my appliances will be bristling with will NEVER be abused by anyone
9. Re:Thank you LG! by Sperbels · 2017-01-09 05:42 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  If you have nothing to hide in your refrigerator, then you have nothing to worry about.
10. Re:Thank you LG! by Darinbob · 2017-01-09 09:21 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I'm worried about last year's cottage cheese going bad and starting to download porn.
Re:I don't see where the "threat" is... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-09 02:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

The "threat" comes when somebody with an exploit kit and a laptop drives by and turns your fridge into a ransomeware tool that spoils your food and posts naked photos of you getting up for a midnight snack on reddit.
Re:I don't see where the "threat" is... by Notabadguy · 2017-01-09 02:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

Yes, it is a threat - if a device can be connected to, it's exposed to compromise.
I want my fridge to keep my milk, meet and liquor cold. I do not want it to tell me anything, ever. I do not want it to engage with me, to use my bandwidth, to report back to LG on my shopping habits, to fill out a grocery list, or do ANYTHING except serve as a platform to chill the things I desire chilled.
Bad enough that pacemakers are getting hacked and hospital networks are getting shut down - I have zero interest in furthering this stupid fucking push to make everything available for someone else to exploit.
And Samsung... by ctrl-alt-canc · 2017-01-09 02:50 · Score: 4, Funny

...threatens to put a Lithium-Ion battery in every appliance!
A bleak future by meta-monkey · 2017-01-09 02:53 · Score: 4, Insightful

I'm already tech support for my entire family. Now I get to be tech support for their appliances. Every Thanksgiving is going to be "oh, since you're here, can you fix the wifi on the fridge?"

--
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Consumers will need enterprise APs... by acoustix · 2017-01-09 02:58 · Score: 4, Interesting

...to handle the 40+ wireless clients in the house.

--
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
Re:I don't see where the "threat" is... by starblazer · 2017-01-09 03:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

I think what the science and tech community is complaining about is feature creep. I don't need my toaster to have bluetooth to tell me the toast is done. I need the toaster to last a year or three.
I don't want a fridge that can phone home to the masters and have them pester me about a 'service tech' should come out and vacuum the coils. I can do that myself.
Just because we can put a wifi card in it doesn't mean we should. If you really wanted to make sure your fridge was at a safe temp... you can do that already with an Arduino and a sensor. No vendor lock-in... no calling home to daddy corporation with your personal habits (shopping and usage).
Give me an appliance that are built to last for at least a decade.... and I'll start letting you throw Wifi in it.
Re:I don't see where the "threat" is... by aix+tom · 2017-01-09 03:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

I wonder if have any idea in their deranged mind to *lower* the cost of the fridge, but require a monthly subscription for it to work.
Which would open up an opportunity for black-marked "DRM-Removed" household appliances....... "Download 12 month of refrigeration from piratebay!!!"
they better offer monthly upgrades by swschrad · 2017-01-09 03:26 · Score: 4, Interesting

on account of Internet of Hacked. if I had one, I'd block it at the router.

--
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Re:I don't see where the "threat" is... by TheRaven64 · 2017-01-09 03:40 · Score: 4, Insightful

The thought is that embedded wifi will only ever be a security risk, and could never possibly be of use to anyone.
No, the thought is that embedded WiFi is a security risk and this risk outweighs the benefits. A typical fridge lasts, what, 10-20 years? Do you think LG is going to be back-porting network stack security fixes to Linux for 20 years? Do you think that, even if they wanted to, they will make enough profit on fridges to be able to afford to? Over the last 3-4 years, I've lost track of the number of vulnerabilities that enable anyone who can send a packet to the stack to gain kernel-level privilege. Will LG be fixing all of these for the lifetime of the fridge?

--
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
No! Not the toaster! by PPH · 2017-01-09 04:20 · Score: 5, Funny

My wife asked me why I carried my gun around the house.
"Decepticons", I replied.
She laughed. I laughed. The toaster laughed. I shot the toaster.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
GO STICK YOUR HEAD IN A PIG by Thud457 · 2017-01-09 04:48 · Score: 4, Funny

The Marketing Division of LG is a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

--
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1. Re:GO STICK YOUR HEAD IN A PIG by tehcyder · 2017-01-09 05:22 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The Marketing Division of LG is a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
  Why wait for a revolution, I say we hunt 'em down now and fix this fucking problem before it gets out of hand.
  Or alternatively you could not buy a fucking internet fridge.
  Which is admittedly less macho than taking out the Board of Directors with an M134 mini gun.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it