Really good technical write up, thanks for posting.

In any sane world any company using these sorts of abusive practices, especially at this sort of scale, would be banned from the mobile app stores & fined to oblivion.

Alas, I fear a small fine is the best that may happen via user initiated lawsuits, which ends up as just another cost of doing business for orgs of that size.

This is blasphemy!

If they are WiFi controlled that’s actually a good thing, as it sounds like the manufacturer is still supporting it & hopefully updating it to prevent security issues & hacks!

But this is also why I personally try not to buy WiFi enabled gadgets unless it really needs to be remotely accessible.

Anything with a network connection (unfortunately).

Hey man, I got 5 kids to feed

You feeling ok buddy?