Why I Make Smart Devices Dumber: A Privacy Advocate's Reflection
When you replace a vacuum robot's proprietary brain with open-source firmware, you are not just modifying a device--you are making a statement about ownership and control. Sometimes the smartest choice is to make devices dumber.
Diogenes was knee-deep in a stream washing vegetables. Seeing him, Plato said, "My good Diogenes, if you knew how to pay court to kings, you wouldn't have to wash vegetables." -- "And," replied Diogenes, "If you knew how to wash vegetables, you wouldn't have to pay court to kings."
I flipped the vacuum robot upside down on my desk, wheels in the air. A thousand dollar marvel of modern, rebranded AliExpress convenience. Ready to map my home, learn my patterns, and send data across continents. Behind every promise of convenience lie hidden costs we're only beginning to understand.
My screwdriver hovered on its seams: These robots are not just about cleaning floors anymore, but drawing a line in the digital sand.
In the rush to embrace smart devices, you accept a devil's bargain: convenience for surveillance, efficiency for privacy. Homes become frontiers in the attention wars--each gadget a potential Trojan horse of data collection, promising easier lives.
The DIY movement has evolved far beyond fixing broken toasters. Some, like the devs of Valetudo, are digital rights advocates armed with soldering irons and software. Their work challenges the invisible monopolies that shape our relationship with technology. They're not just fixing devices: They are liberating those from adware and behavioral data harvesting. Each freed device marks a small victory in a conflict most people don't even realize they're in.
As your devices get "smarter," you face a choice about your response. If we were to ask Borgmann, the only answer would be direct engagement with our world through mindful tools and action (in this case, a broom!) But when contemporary life forces compromises, we can at least transform our devices into what I call single-task tools. Focused on one purpose, then getting the hell out of my way. Converting a robot vacuum with open firmware turns a "smart" data device into a simple floor cleaner. Not as focal as a broom, but not even actively eroding agency.
When you replace a robot's secret brain with open-source code, you make a choice about ownership and control. Though, if we are candid, the question isn't whether we can hack our devices. It's whether we should even allow devices requiring hacking to keep basic privacy.
Honestly, I'm tired of spending hours making a device dumber just to focus on what it's advertised to do in an honest way.
It's conscious engagement with the technology that increasingly mediates our lives. When my vacuum picks up dog hair, it must do so under the limits I set. Its data stays in, like dust in its bin.
Technology's ethical challenges will be solved by people like you making conscious choices about the tech they let into their life. Each modified tool is part of a larger conversation about what we're willing to sacrifice for convenience.
You are not just protecting privacy. You are claiming the right to understand and control the technology surrounding you.
Sometimes the smartest choice is making devices a little dumber.