Your 'Air Fryer is Spying' on You, Warns Ted Cruz in Introducing Bipartisan Smart Tech Consumer Privacy Bill
Last week, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tried to get support for a bill that would inform consumers if an appliance has the potential to monitor them, in what he calls a way to stop Big Tech from spying on the little guy.
Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington are today supporting the Informing Consumers about Smart Devices Act, which cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in March, according to the U.K. Daily Mail, which noted it has already been approved in the House.
Last week, Cruz wanted the bill to be given unanimous consent so it could move to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature, but Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky objected on the grounds that good intentions do not necessarily mean good legislation.
The risk of an appliance knowing more about your habits than you do is not some bureaucratic fancy. Bob Vila’s website recently noted that even your smart refrigerator can be misused.
“If you consider that companies want to know all about what you’re buying and using on a day-to-day basis, then a smart refrigerator with an internal camera looking at what you have inside offers a treasure trove of data. Your smart fridge may also be monitoring family conversations that take place while you’re cooking breakfast,” the website noted.
What gets put online is open to stealing. As noted by Microsoft, Chinese hackers are already hard at work stealing data.
Cruz began his speech in favor of his bill by noting how the reality of his life as an adult is copying the cartoons he watched as a child.
“Many Americans remember waking up on Saturday morning to watch their favorite cartoons, including shows like The Jetsons. As I look at the Senate pages that were here, I suspect none of you have any memory of the Jetsons. For those who are under 40, in the chamber or watching at home, the Jetsons was a futuristic cartoon set in the year 2062. And it depicted a family from the future who had fun, imaginative technologies like jetpacks, holograms, video calls, robot vacuums, smartwatches, and flying cars. While we’re still waiting to see those flying cars in the air, we already have a lot of the Jetsons technology available to us now, in many cases even better than what was depicted in cartoon on the show,” Cruz said, according to the Commerce committee’s website.
“Today, internet-connected smart devices are commonly used in American households, light bulbs, mirrors, air fryers, coffeemakers, trash cans, kitchen faucets, refrigerators, and more are all becoming quote unquote, smart. And we’re able to control them with our phones or voice commands. A lot of that is really cool,” he said.
Cruz said the tradeoff is that “a lot of Americans don’t realize or expect that the growing number of smart household devices and appliances, have cameras on them, and microphones that can surreptitiously record families and transmit data.”
“In other words, when you’re buying a new refrigerator, you don’t expect your fridge to record you, or listen to you, or spy on you without your knowledge,” he said.
“Now, I’m sympathetic to the argument that there are too many mandates from government and that many of the mandates are unnecessary, burdensome, and costly. But requiring a manufacturer to tell you if they’re spying on you does not fall into that category,” he said.
Cruz continued, “I don’t think the American people want their air fryer spying on them. And at a minimum, they have a right to know if their air fryer is spying on them.”
However, Paul said he sticks to his guns that consumers should be the ones demanding change, not the government.
“Far too often Congress operates under the delusion that we know what is best for the American consumer,” he said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“This bill mandates what manufacturers must tell consumers because it assumes that consumers are not sophisticated enough to make the judgment themselves,” Paul said.
“If American consumers want more information about a product, they can be sure they will make it known. If a manufacturer wants to sell more of their products, you can be sure they will listen to the consumers,” he said.
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