News Your washing machine could be sending 3.7 GB of data a day

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LG washing machine owner disconnected his device from Wi-Fi after noticing excessive outgoing daily data traffic

An LG washing machine owner and self-confessed fintech geek has asked the Twitterverse why his smart home appliance ate an average of 3.66GB of data daily. Concerned about the washer’s internet addiction, Johnie forced the device to go cold turkey and blocked it using his router UI. Had the LG washer been hacked, hijacked, or otherwise tampered with over the net – or is this the average data consumption for a modern smart appliance?


Social media fans were eager to contribute to the detective work, sniffing out why the LG washing machine might be data-thirsty. Johnie’s initial screenshot showed that on a chosen day, the device uploaded 3.57GB and downloaded about 100MB, and the data traffic was almost constant. Meanwhile, according to the Asus router interface screenshot, the washing machine accounted for just shy of 5% of Johnie’s internet traffic daily.

Was the device downloading DLCs or the victim of a hack?

The LG washing machine owner saw the fun in his predicament and joked that the device might use Wi-Fi for “DLCs (Downloadable Laundry Cycles).” He wasn’t entirely kidding: The machine does download presets for various types of apparel. However, the lion’s share of the data transferred was uploaded.

 
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