Abstract:
Recently, some netizens broke the news on a short video platform that their Midea smart washing machine consumed a large amount of traffic in a short period of time after being connected to WiFi. The abnormal data triggered heated discussions across the Internet. Many netizens are worried that smart home appliances may have privacy leakage risks.
According to screenshots of router traffic statistics released by netizens, the Midea washing machine involved was connected to the home WiFi through the 2.4GHz frequency band. In only 19 hours, 40 minutes and 5 seconds of Internet connection, the cumulative traffic consumption was as high as 411.52MB.
The above-mentioned traffic consumption is far beyond the user's awareness. The netizen openly said: "The washing machine uploads more than 400 megabytes of data in less than a day. What is it doing?"
After the incident fermented, the user involved revealed to the media that Midea officials had proactively contacted him. Currently, Midea has provided the serial number of the washing machine product, and the brand is investigating the specific reasons for the abnormal traffic.
In response to the traffic anomalies and privacy security issues hotly discussed by netizens, Midea’s nationwide 400 official customer service responded that the core functions of Midea’s smart washing machines connected to the Internet are remote control and device running status synchronization. It is normal for data transmission to occur when connected to the Internet, and the device will not privately collect or upload user privacy information.
At the same time, customer service added that this networking function is a non-mandatory option. If the user does not need the remote control function, simply disconnect the device WiFi connection to completely turn off data consumption.
In response to questions about whether the consumption of more than 400 megabytes of traffic in 19 hours is compliant and normal, customer service clearly responded after internal verification that the traffic consumption is within the normal range. It is recommended that users turn off the device's networking permissions in the background when not using the remote function to avoid generating additional traffic.
In addition, on the evening of September 9, Midea’s after-sales staff added that the networking of all Midea smart home appliances is only used for basic control functions such as remote start and stop, status query, etc.
For this high traffic situation, the after-sales staff analyzed two potential causes: First, the home WiFi signal is unstable, causing the washing machine to frequently disconnect and automatically reconnect, and repeatedly refresh data online, causing a surge in traffic;
Second, there may be deviations in home router traffic statistics. At the same time, the staff member said that if users still have concerns about traffic problems, they can apply for a maintenance technician to come to the site for on-site inspection and troubleshooting.
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