Is your toaster spying on you? What data do our appliances collect?

When buying a new appliance, many of us can be swayed by smart features like the ability to use it via an app on our phone, but a recent report by UK consumer group Which? has revealed that often these products are collecting and selling our data.

Three air fryers were tested - each of them requested to record audio on the users phone, and send it back to China.

Watches, security cameras, washing machines, refrigerators and speakers can have security flaws and they be hacked, and in theory you can be watched and listened to.

Perhaps we laugh it off, or say that if we're not doing anything wrong, we have nothing to hide - but we know our cars, if they're new enough, collect data on us; and there's footage online showing that roaming vacuum cleaners can be hacked by bad actors.

Sunday Morning's Jim Mora spoke to Consumer New Zealand chief executive Jon Duffy about how widespread the issue is in Aotearoa.

"Yes, it will be [happening here]," Duffy said: "And not just picking on air fryers - we are increasingly seeing appliances that we're testing networked, so they're 'Internet of Things' devices - think robovacs, think microwaves ... and in particular think vehicles."

"These appliances are hoovering up your data... and they will be sending them back to the manufacturer - whether it's in China, whether it's in the United States, whether it's elsewhere - and using that data, firstly to provide you services, but also to inform their business and potentially to remarket to you."

So does that come with security and surveillance concerns? Could we find that remarks we have made in private are stored or accessed by others?

"We would hope that our privacy laws and laws in relation to the activities of our security forces would prevent that from happening - but it is technically possible," Duffy said.

"If you think of how widespread the use of and storage of camera footage is - it's very difficult to move around in a major town in New Zealand without being spotted by a CCTV camera, or if you're in a Foodstuffs supermarket, something that has the ability to recognise your face and clock who you are and if you're on the Foodstuffs naughty list.

"These are real things that exist in society now."

Meanwhile, "Meta and Google are pioneers in mining the free services that they provide to people, for information that will make advertisers more likely to spend advertising dollars with them," Duffy said.

One group found digital speakers were sold preloaded with trackers for Facebook, Google and a digital marketing company.

Duffy said there was a trend of retail prices decreasing for devices that can collect data on their users: "Because the value of the data that they're collecting is more valuable to the manufacturer than actually the cost of getting you to buy the thing... but the tradeoff is those devices are collecting data on how they're being used, and their users."

Modern life meant many of us were surrounded by lots of these devices throughout the day, in various settings.

"Now that [appliances] can be networked and plugged into a whole lot of other devices, through things like in-home assistants like Alexa and that type of product, it's not a very big leap to work out that those devices may be able to talk to each another, you may be able to control your home from a central point," Duffy said.

"Hey - that could be beneficial and convenient - but equally, what's to stop all of those manufacturers using that data to start prompting you with things?"

Privacy and security could become - and to some degree already are - more secure for those who can opt to pay to have those services or products.

While data collected about you can be used to tailor advertising and marketing toward you. And Duffy said consumers could be manipulated toward particular commercial choices without knowing, for examples cars that direct you to one brand of coffee house.

"One of the risks is that the prompts... are so subtle, and the data can be collected and processed so quick that - firstly, if you don't realised that you're being advertised to, that's a danger - but also if information is coming at you so quickly there's not really time for you to think," he said.

"Sometimes a little bit of friction in a sales process or a marketing process is a good thing for consumers, because it gives us pause to just take a deep breath and go: 'is this actually really what I want to do?'

"But when it's seamless, and doesn't even really look like advertising, often our defences stay down."

One use for data collected from our personal lives could be companies using it to inform how they choose to do business with us, for instance insurance companies might choose not to insure you if your car's computer shows that you've been speeding.

"Insurance is one aspect," Duffy said, "and it's not too distant in the future, and in fact it could be happening now, where insurance companies may ask for diagnostics from your vehicle, to judge what kind of driver you are and you might get a policy based on the risk that you pose to yourself or the vehicle, based on your driving habits."

Your watch could collect data that could "tell an insurance company about the state of your health - how well you're sleeping, your heart rate, all this sort of stuff."

"Insurance companies have the ability to say 'we won't insure you unless you provide this data to us'. Now they're not forcing you to provide the data, but if you want the insurance, you may need to provide the data."

People concerned about their data being shared can consider choosing appliances that are not networked, Duffy said. Or even better - he said, getting the most life out of existing not-so-smart appliances, was a good strategy on this front, but also prevents waste.

"You can ask yourself the question, does my toaster need to be plugged in to the internet? Do I need a network device? What's the benefit that that's given me?

"The manufacturer might be pushing it to me as a gimmick that separates this toaster from the rest of the pack - but what use do I actually have for that networked capability? And what detriments could it bring?

"I mean ultimately, if your toaster can be set to toast a piece of bread from your bus on the way home, and your toast is ready for you when you get in the door, I guess that's beneficial, but what are you trading away in terms of your data and your privacy?"

How do we know which devices have the capability to gather data about us?

"For the most part, companies that are putting the effort into networking their appliances will want you to know about it - so they'll push this at you as a beneficial feature that you should be happy to purchase. And I guess the question for consumers is ... weighing up the risk versus the benefit of a device being networked...," Duffy said.

"Like, we've had heaters for generations that haven't been networked and they've heated our homes."