“I’m looking for a privacy respecting vacuum robot” must be one of the most dystopian sentences I’ve read in quite some time.

I think this one is just as good:

Philips changes terms after the sale: requires data-sharing account to use a light bulb...

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR2j-r3pmng (Louis Rossman)

OTOH, "I'd like a TB that doesn't show me its own ads" would've been perfectly predictable.

People were predicting it as soon as devices other than computers started connecting to the internet. Maybe even before that.

Damn, thats a pretty short list of supported models

+1 for Valetudo! I've installed it once via OTA and twice by FEL. The OTA was obviously a breeze, but FEL wasn't that bad. I just watched videos on YouTube for the disassembly and took my time doing each step. I love the UI and the fact that I can SSH into them just for the sheer coolness of it! I think one great thing about it is that it doesn't affect the software that the robot uses for all its tasks and functions (e.g. vacuuming, mopping, sensors), just that it replaced the cloud and runs it on device.

Thanks a lot, that pretty much what I was looking for

Never knew this was a thing. Going to try it on my roborock, appreciate the link.

I might get into robot vacuums again, thank you very much!

I use a Dreametech L10 Pro with Valetudo and absolutely love it!

It is quite nice to be able to map your whole house for the vacuum in your own cloud rather provide a 3rd party that data.

This is damn great.

I'd definitely recommended valetudo, but wanted to mention that eufy has some easily repairable non WiFi vacs that work reasonably well with no smart features. Eufy has a rough track record regarding privacy with their other smart products but can't spy without a connection.

Thanks, that looks really promising

Because Valetudo is not a custom firmware, it cannot change anything about how the robot operates.

Source: https://valetudo.cloud/pages/general/newcomer-guide.html

Roomba is an anagram for "a broom"

There's a community for this. https://lemmy.world/c/aboringdystopia

nope. reminding you now

Isn't the whole idea that they're using the internet to relay information about the layout of your home

That mitigates a rather minimal leak while ignoring the gaping black data hole.

I do the reverse. My IoT devices that I didn't make myself get shut out of communicating with anything but Home Assistant.

I'll let them have internet access if there's a firmware update, but that's it. Anything that requires an internet connection to work doesn't get purchased.

I like this approach cuz it plays ball and can be reused for a number of products. Could have an "appliances" network and make a reusable fake "appliances" identity for any device that wants to IoT.

Ha, you mentioned my use case: disability. I got my first robot as a 'this is cool' curiosity, and to try and take a bit of the burden of running a household + working + supporting two disabled adult children off my folks. It gives me a small manageable task (maintain the robot) and gives them ~90 minutes of their time back to work on other things like budgeting or meal prep, or relax for a bit after coming home from work.

7 years later (and 6 robot models; run awayyyyy from irobot or shark models!), and they've only had to pull out the manual vacuum twice. Though I prioritize cleaning ability over privacy concerns, seeing as if they have to vacuum regularly, the robot has no value to me.